Sounds similar to my Carolina bugcatcher I use on a tripod like the
outbacker antenna uses but it's home made. That setup, has been a/b/ed with
a dipole, and I'll tell you what, it's right there if I do it right. That
antenna is better than the outbacker on the same kind of mount and I think
your antenna will work on a mount like that as well. If you've seen the
tripod I'm referring to, it's actually very very easy to home make. I think
mine, with scrap aluminum from a friend of mine, only cost about $10 to
build. Nice when from outbacker it costs 200 US, and even if I built that
buying all the parts, I could have done it for $25 easy. There are a lot of
options, keep me posted, I'm moving in to an apartment very shortly and
making very sure I can put up an HF antenna, a wire or something but that
setup may be something I need for a couple weeks.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Colin McDonald" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 2:12 AM
Subject: some new antennas to play with
>I picked up one of the MFJ hamtennas the other day.
> I got the 20M resonator and whip.
> It's essentially a 4 foot long poll with wire wrapps up to a loading coil
> near the top...then a 4 foot stainless steel whip attached on top.
> the bass terminates in a 3/8's by 24 stud.
> the whole assembly was pretty cheap so i figured i would try it out and
> see
> what sort of results I could get.
> the shop didn't have any c clamp style mounts, so i'm fabricating
> something
> to atach to the balcony railing. I picked up a bunch of 18 gage speaker
> wire to use as counter poise as well.
> I've also got a maggy mount with a 3/8's female connecter that i'm going
> to
> try out both mobile and perhaps at home if I can't find anything adequit
> for
> a mount.
> I know I can probably get one of the c clamp style mounts online as well.
> so far, with the antenna leaning against the wall inside on the fourth
> floor, I am receiving far more on 20 meters than I was before.
> I have the ground screw on the radio connected to the hot water heater
> pipe
> as a counter poise, but obviously it's far too long and not designed to
> work
> with the antenna...a few 16.5ft pieces of speaker wire should work well as
> a
> counter poise for now...attached at the bass of the antenna right at the
> feed point.
>
> I also picked up a midland 18-325c dual band mobile antenna that i'm going
> to use instead of the current quarter wave dual band on the vehicle.
> Hopefully that will keep me into the repeater more consistently than the
> quarter wave does now.
>
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
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