Torture Test the Gabil GRA-7350T SHTF HF Ham Radio Antenna: Day 1 of 30.
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- What abuse do you think we should subject this antenna to? Torture Test the Gabil GRA-7350T SHTF HF Ham Radio Antenna: Day 1 of 30.
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I love torture tests! Set it up as you would, and forget about it for 30 days.
Pretty sound advise.
Oh, I had mine out in Texas 100 degree heat for 30 days playing with it. 🤣Did not mean to leave it that long but but it still works great.
I feel like you've already tortured it, and now I have very high expectations it will survive the 30 days and graduate to more severe abuse. Thanks for watching Don.
I can’t think of anything harder on an antenna than using it as a mobile antenna. Mount it on the car for few months. Not only is it going to be outdoors and exposed to the elements, but it will be subjected to lots of wind loading and swinging around!
I work from home since the pandemic and hardly ever use my vehicle anymore; but that is a really good suggestion. Thanks.
It’s a compromise antenna at best. Does anyone think differently? I hope not! But what it does is coast to coast from WA to MD,NY,WV,AK, and Japan. And a lot of places in between. Kinda like my 6BTV did.
Spot on. Compromised, and yet somehow gets the job done.
Thanks for another video!!
My pleasure; I want to due my best to find the failure point of this antenna before it makes it to the go bag.
The hurricane messed up with your test=/
One good test you could do is to kill a zombie with the antenna. I mean, if we are really talking about emergency bag you have to be ready for everything =). The chameleon ss17 does the job, this one has to do too.
A zombie killer; didn't think of that one -- that would make it quite versatile.
Ian did interfere a bit with the torture test, but we'll pick up where we left off.
Short verticals may be easy to deploy quickly in virtually any environment, but they are far from optimal for Ecom. In most Ecom situations you want local (0mi-25mi) and regional communications (25mi-300mi). You need help that is close enough to be familiar with you situation that can help effect an assistance effort. You need NVIS communications.
Short verticals have significantly reduced NVIS performance due to loading and vertical radiation. On transmit this can be over come with increased transmit power. On receive it may not be possible to increase performance with a preamp. Noise levels on the lower HF bands are noise prone and vertical antennas a more susceptible to QRM. In both cases of transmit and receive increased power means more power required during a grid down event which may be problematic.
You best regional communication is NVIS through a full size wire antenna at 1/10-1/4 wavelength above the ground and a reflector for increased performance.
After a major hurricane you need help from outside the effected area that may be 75mi wide at landfall and over 100mi long. NVIS with a 25mi to 300mi range is optimal with zero skip zone.
With a small vertical you often will have a skip zone of >150mi after ground wave runs out at about 15mi-20mi. The first skip will often be 300mi-500mi.
80m and 60m are the only amateur NVIS bands that are reasonably consistently operational during solar minimums.
You can improve NVIS performance of short verticals with ground radial or moreso with tuned elevated counterpoise wires that are essential the fullsized wire NVIS antenna based upon a 1/4 wavelength.
You can build a throw away full sized wire NVIS antenna with aluminum electric fence wire for a few dollars in a package less than 1/4th of the small loaded vertical.
Save your short vertical for POTA activations where park rules prevent putting wires in trees.
ruclips.net/video/nShDYlZGKlc/видео.html
Viron thanks for watching and the detailed explanation. The antennas type you recommend for NVIS are spot on.
You should take it to a pota and "forget" it on the roof and let it fall off acouple times. Set on a table and "accidentally" trip over the coax and pull it off the table a few times.
Thanks Jim watching and for the recommendations. Shortly after this video I did toss it around a bit...results of that video are posted. Dropping and falling over happens, and I think those are fair tests.
my only problem with it is the calibration chart which can get lost. I put the key frequencies and corresponding adjustment points on the side of the coil so I will always have it with me.
Great idea Steve, thanks for sharing.
It'll never beat a random wire thrown over a tree branch. One counterpoise wire and a small tuner and away you go.
For sure Ivan, a wire is better. That is not my specific use case and I do have a reason for the vertical; but a wire is always preferred when possible.
The odd threading was a deal breaker for me. One compromise to many. I sent the antenna back and since I no longer needed the tripod, that went back as well.
I hear you, the threads surprised me. I wall all ready to find M10 1.5 to 3/8 X 24 adapter, and no go. I finally found this weird one at a ridiculous price and have it on order. I'll let the world know what I find out. Thanks for watching.
Awesome video. Thank you sir. 73 WA6MOW
My pleasure, more to come. Thanks for watching.
Awesome, looking forward to following this series.
Thanks for watching Levy. Going to push this to the brink before its aloud in the Go Bag.
@@HOAHamRadio are you planning to test it in the rain? I left it at my balcony for an hour and suddenly the SWR went from 1.2 to like 10. It moved from 3.750 to about 4.050 mhz. It was raining lightly on and off the whole day. I had to stop transmitting for the day but will check later if my coax is the issue and hopefully not the antenna. Thanks!
@@LevyCarneiro YES! It is getting hammered in the rain here in Tampa, and will for 30 days. I taped between the tripod pigtail and my coax as that is a normal place water will get in.
If you discover the cause of your issue, let me know.
My video will post in about 45 days; the torture test just started the day I posted the video.
Nevermind, found the issue: the connector in my coax is unstable :)
@@HOAHamRadio that will be a comprehensive test!
Great idea testing this antenna.. I look forward to your results.. I suppose coating it with 1/2 inch thick ice with high winds blowing it over OR buried in a snow storm/blizzard test would be out of the question?, LOL... Have fun playing.. 73
I'm afraid I'm going to have to send it your direction for the freeze test; lets target February.
Looking forward to your testing with the longer antennas ! Would be especially interesting to see if the unit will be able to reach 80m with say an BD7IBI without the added 80m loading coil 😜
Haven't started taping it yet, but its not too far off Dave. I found the perfect (but expensive) adapter to get to 3/8 X 24 at McMaster Carr. It will let us use all the normal suspects for verticals. Now to figure out if the Gabil will hold them up.
This will be fun to follow. I also have this in my go bag. I've had success on 80m also. Please share the adapter results. I'd love to have multiple options for it.
I have high hopes for good results, and I will be sharing the adapter whether it works or not. Thanks for watching.
I think a drop onto some rocks or concrete while it’s strapped to a heavy backpack is a good realistic test.
I think this is a better idea than putting it over my knee and trying to bend / break it. This might make it to the video. Thanks for watching and recommending.
I love a good torture test, I look forward to following how this performs.
I'll give it a little extra punishment just for you Dusty; thanks for watching.