Ask Dave Episode 1: Antenna Analyzers
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- New series! Ask your questions about ham radio. Designed especially for new hams. This week's episode explores antenna analyzers and things you can do with them, including measuring coax loss, distance to fault (coax length), velocity factor, and trimming a six-meter (52 MHz) dipole for lowest SWR. Ask your questions at www.ke0og.net/ask-dave.
Hi Dave. I hope you do not mind, but you have become one of my "Elmers" ! I left the British Royal Navy (Submarine Service) in 1991. Having been a Radio Op in the Navy I always wanted to get involved in Amateur Radio. Well the day arrived, a little delayed with life, but I am currently studying for my Foundation Lic., in the UK, and you, along with others, have become a shining light in furthering my education in Propogation, spectrum analysis, RFI, antennas and general very useful info on all else. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your presence out there for us all. Thank you so much. Keep it up and the best of health to you Mr Casler Sir. 73.
Dave you are an excellent teacher, Elmer and overall guru. You have a calmative inflection but what you have to say is so informative, I learn all the while. Thank you sir!
Hi Dave hope all is well with you and your family question, I'm having all hell trying to get my antenna to match 50ohms sometimes it gets as high as 30 and that's it with a good swr it's a diy 4 element yagi on the 11 meter band any support will be greatly appreciated
Mᕦ⊙෴⊙ᕤᕦ༼✩ل͜✩༽ᕤ
I feel tremendous joy when I watch your shows. Thanks for being a great teacher Dave!
Dave, as a very new operator, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your videos and how invaluable they have been to me! I am trying to consume as much info as possible and subscribing to your channel has been the top of my "education". If you ever get down here, would love to buy you a cup of coffee! Thank you and 73! ka0rsn (Pagosa Springs)
+Gear Hammer Thanks! I'm glad you found the videos useful!
I've ridden the train a few times and enjoy it as much as the first time, beautiful area. Renewing my knowledge base after a 10 year absence from radio, thanks for the helpful videos.
Thank you for the easy to follow instruction. I am a new Ham (no call sign yet) and appreciate the effort many experienced Hams put into videos like this. "73" North Central Idaho
+Ty Williams You're welcome!
.ca doug
Ved
oliser
Vidoliser
Dave, Thanks for your video! I am a new ham and I am building my first antenna and this gave me some useful information. Also on a side-note thanks for the picture of the Silverton train station. Brings back memories of riding that train as a kid. I Look forward to more of your videos on everything Ham
***** You're welcome!
Hello Dave, I am KC4ZZE, this is what Ham radio is about, sharing experiences and knowledge to advance the art. Thank you for doing that. I would like to share an experience with you: I needed a way to rotate the hexbeam remotely 200 miles away from the shack using a RCA VH226E antenna rotator. I came up with a solution after giving it a lot of thought. I purchased a WIFI IR hub and manually programmed the hub training it with the VH226E’s RCA handheld remote control as an experiment. It worked! I can now rotate the hexbeam from my cell phone turning it North, East, West, and South controlling the VH226E Antenna Rotator from my android cell phone using the Tuya App. The IR hub is freely supported by the Tuya app. I watch from two remote cameras to see the inside rotator box and outside antenna rotator operate and turn as I use the Tuya app. The AC power to the inside RCA VH226E box is a manual switch on the side of the box. I set the switch to permanent on position and plugged into a Kasa AC outlet. Now I can rotate my antenna from any where in the world with WIFI connection.
Great timing! I bought the same MFJ antenna analyzer a while back off Ebay and need to check my new Myantennas EFHW 4010 location endfed. Your tutorial will help immensely along with the analyzer manual. Thanks again, Steve KZ5MSE
just found your channel and looks to be answers to my questions. Thanks Dave.
Well done! I appreciate the brief overview followed by the hands on "how to do it". I look forward to each future episode.
Your videos are pure gold.
Very well done and informative video. Nothing like watching an expert do it as they explaining in simple terms along the way.
Thanks, KE8FNA
Awesome video, it answered a lot of my questions about antennas. Yes I have one of MFJ’s SWR meters and I’m learning to use it, that just gave me more knowledge as I am going to be building my own antennas
Best dipole video I have seen! David Byrd KN4BHS
Dave, Great idea...You did great explaining the "J" Pole antenna...
Just got an old MFJ 269 and your video was very easy to understand. M0RMW
Dave you are a great instructor!
Thank you! 73
Dave, I like the new series. You told us that we didn't need an antenna analyzer but didn't show us how to adjust an antenna without one. I'm a new ham and don't want to throw a couple hundred bucks at one just yet but would like to get on some hf bands.
1974longhair I mentioned it very briefly, but I'll give a more complete method in an upcoming video. Thanks for your question!
1974longhair There are formulas that you use, given the frequency, that tells you the length of antenna. He did that in the video.
1974longhair See "About Dave Episode 5," which directly addresses your question. 73, Dave
Nice start Dave. Great series.
Excellent presentation. Good clarity and content.
I learned something new about analysers.
Thanks, cheers :-)
New to HAM ....thanks, I look forward to seeing many more of your videos.
I have been there very cool. Also Have found the geocache there.
Thank you for the information. As a new "ham", I enjoy learning new things. Keep up the good work! 73! KM4QFN Mike
Dave, an easy way to eliminate guess work and determine how much to add or cut from a dipole is to divide the frequency where it is initially found to be resonate into 468 and then subtract or add it from/to the DESIRED frequency divided into 468.
For example, if the initial measurement indicates resonance at 53.598 and the desired frequency is 50.125, divide 468 by 53.595. Result is 8.732 feet (which may or may not be the ACTUAL physical length). Then divide 468 by 50.125 which equals 9.337 feet. Subtract 8.732 from 9.337 equals .605 feet or 7.26 (7 1/4) inches. So add 3 5/8 inches (half of 7 1/4) each end and measure again. It should now be resonate at 50.125 MHz (National 6 meter calling frequency)..
Just a hint you may already know.
Yes, but I'd still leave a little extra length. I once cut a dipole in the manner you mentioned, and it ended up a little too short. So leave a little extra play with after the cut.
@@davecasler Interesting you should say that. It's always worked for me. However, I don't actually "cut" the wire. I wrap it back on itself in case I did have to lengthen it. But in over 40 years, I've never had to.
Good video... but I think you could mention that even with that antenna setup... the user doesn't need to stay at the 32-Ohm antenna to coax mismatch power loss. That 32-Ohms can be easily modified to the needed 50-Ohm impedance with a small transformer.
Great Instructor. I am about to take my Tech exam. This is the first time I have heard about placing the antenna 1/2 wave length above the ground. Where is the best place to find out more about this? Thank you for your dedication to Ham Radio!
This is amateur is a pro! I mean that in the nicest manner. Great video.
Hi very good video . thanks . looks a very nice place where you live , must have flown over there so many time didnt know it was there , next time will give you a wave . keep the info vids coming . 73 thanks
A nice clear explanation. If you raise that 6m antenna to optimum height, as you say the resistance will rise to closer to 50 ohms and the SWR will fall. But will the length have to be readjusted?
Dave ,
Great video. Thanks! I learned a lot.
73 George KB3WAQ
Thanks Dave! Every time I get discouraged I find myself right back on your home page or on on your Utube site. There’s always encouragement and positive answers from you. BTW Anyone who knows Train Lines are great at details. After a visit at Mayo Clinic and having a very very serious operation with my being heart removed from my chest for 10 hours, I left a high pressure job and took up model trains. What great history there is in the Railroads of America! And the World! 73’s. Wesley KC5FTT
This is also a great review for an old ham like me 1965. WB7ORB
I've been watching several of your well presented videos for sometime now. I like what I've seen and continually look for any new video presentation. The series you've created for new Ham radio operators is an ideal starting place to learn much of the in's and out's of Ham radio. I will continue to recommend your videos to anyone asking for a place to find great Ham radio operating instruction.
I've been using the latest digital mode since it was released by Joe Taylor in July of 2017. I would like to see a video you create giving an overview of the FT8 digital mode latest version 1.9.
Thanks so much for all you have done - Keep up the good work. K4KSW.
MFJ should link your video to their site. Thanks!
Great video Dave !!!!. I picked up several things from this video that I was always curious about. I do have one question though. You mentioned that you unequivocally didn't need an antenna analyzer in figuring out the SWR because you could achieve this by taking measurements across the band when transmitting on the radio. How would you figure out the ohms of the dipole though when the line is only 5 feet about the ground using a voltmeter, providing you didn't have an antenna analyzer?
I borrowed this analyzer from a friend. SWR is 1.2, X=0, R=100. I found a receipt in the box stating it was calibrated. Maybe this is why I have a reading of 100 ohms?
i have watched very many of your videos, preparing for the tech, then the general, which i passed yesterday.you had a video on basic set up for equipment and would like to review it.
Congratulations for your upgrade!
Antenna launcher. Sling shot/zebco reel. With a one ounce sinker. Up up and away. Then pull to tighten. Adj ist a good day thanks.
Good Morning ''Dave'' My question being: we do have formulaes for working out Antenna length and frequency ''But where is the formulae for Antenna Height above Terrafirmer = ground as in Earth ?
Excellent!!! Thank you!
Dave....I have been watching several of your videos and find them very informative but I am a new Technician and trying to get my radio setup (Kenwood TS440s ) and I am trying to find a vertical antenna that will do 6M - 80M and getting a little overwhelmed with the selection. Could you provide an ole slide rule using fool some recommendations....LOL
Dave, I really liked this video. I have the same MFJ and it is about the most logical analyzer I have ever used. I love it. Excellent demonstration of it. And I must say, pretty good job of getting well inside the ball park on the first try.
Thank you!
ADavis, I found this video to be both interesting and instructive. I do have a question, I have heard that a feedpoint should have some passive component to prevent RF from coming back down the coax . Is this true?
The component is called a balun. There are several different types. But I've had good luck with dipoles without using a balun.
As I study for my ticket, I'm quite curious to make an antenna for 151.350 and 159.650 vhf which is the frequencies my job is on.
Thank you for your time/help.
The antennas are quite linear when it comes to frequency changes. Your antenna will be smaller than a 2-meter J-pole. Scale all the dimensions by 146/156 as a starting point. The spacing between the scaling stub and the main antenna doesn't have to be scaled, though you can if you want to. You'll need to experiment from there. Good luck!
Hi Dave.
Great job with the antenna . I didn't know that antennas are hight critical, there is a lot of knowledge required to understand the complex nature of Ham radio.
How about doing a few videos on "what you need to know " for new operators ?
you could call the series Dave's getting a grip on Ham radio 1 to 4.or Dave's up and running 1to 4. or even Dave's lifeboat series 1to 4
just a thought anyway thanks!
David M6 DFL
Thank you so much for this video.
I really like that you brought up the drop in resistance due to non-optimal height, and this is an excellent video to put it in, since people who have just gotten their new, shiny antenna analyzers are going to be wondering why they can't achieve an 1:1 SWR no matter how much they adjust the length.
On point, well paced, and informative, as always.
Nice video Dave, Been a ham for 40 years and learned a lot from that one. Keep 'em coming. 73.
There are many new analyzers out there now. You used to have only a couple of choices. Now there are all kinds of choices out there. Including these nano-vna units.
The MFJ does several other handy functions though. Including using it as a sugnal generator, frequency counter, measuring inductance and capacitance at different frequencies. Etc..
Hi Dave, I love your stuff and that of other operators but I dont believe that you or others get the centre (center inthe US) frequencies correct. I believe that the centre frequency in your 6M band is 51.96MHz. The formula I am using is SQRT(50X54). I am not a licensed ham yet but I believe that simply taking the average of frequency is wrong. If you are right and I am wrong the please correct me! Please believe me that I am not being bad towards you, but simply trying to understand the maths. Thanks for looking at my comment.
I LIKE the way you did this video . GREAT
Question: You and others, including "Crash Course" all show how to PROGRAM an HT, especially the Baofeng HT's, BUT, nobody explains or show how to ACTUALLY USE one.
HOW to get or grab a signal and ACTUALLY USE the radio.
All programmed, all charged, have license, now - HOW DO I "USE" it - PLEASE
Please do a video on "HOW TO USE" a baofeng, once programmed and ready. - PLEASE.!!!
Dave, can you do a show on baluns and ununs? KE8RU, Andy.
Hi Dave. de w5kub. great video as all the others are. I love wire antennas, You can learn so much. Found one little blooper in this video. you called it an antenna tuner when you were hooking up the coax to test the dipole. lol. I do that all the time too. Looking forward to getting you back on Amateur Radio Roundtable when you have the time.
Hi Tom, good catch!
If the FCC states that all amature radios have to be certified, what about a Heath Kit build by a Ham 30 years ago. And forget a VFO because that radio works on many bands that are not ham bands. Also what about 162.475 the nation weather frequency? It is outside the 2 meter band but is very useful. And what about the statement that in times of national emergency a ham call sign can use any station, even public broadcast AM or FM?
The FCC Notice did not affect any receive capability, and was limited in scope to VHF/UHF.
If you change the horizontal dipole into an inverted V you can change the impermanence closer to 50 ohms by playing with the angle of the elements.
an excellent resource. thank you for taking the time.
I have the MFJ-269 [I think that is the number] . I have a 160 meter [short] dipole at 35 ft which I feed with 450 ohm ladder line. When I put a 1:1 balun on the feedline at the shack end and take readings from 1.8 to 28.5 Mhz band I sure do get a variety of SWR readings. NOW the question. My MFJ gives readings of SWR, R, X . When I use the R and X to Calculate [using the formula] SWR , it often does not match the SWR shown in the MFJ display. Often it is not even close, especially as the SWR increases. Do you find this to be true ? Could you go through a couple of calculations of higher SWR [say 5.8 for example] using the MFJ reading please? Perhaps I am misunderstanding the formula. Thanks !
Just subbed Dave! Great share!
73 de Threeza DW3TRZ PHILIPPINES
Dave, would please advise me if the technician + license is still valid. I have the technician class license without the plus + and would like to know the bands and frequencies that are lawful for me to TRANSMIT ON,. please Advise, THANKS MUCH AND i LIKE YOUR VIDEO'S VERY MUCH, Ron, N8DUK
Dave, I am studying for my Extra and "attempting" to use your videos for guidance through the ARRL Extra manual. Is there a way to link to the study course without going through the ARRL website? I am probably doing something wrong but it seems to be quite an ordeal to get back to your teaching site within ARRL. I have an ARRL account but doesn't seem to be much help; just makes it more aggravating????? I really like the Ask Dave videos and I "think" I would like the Extra videos, if they weren't so difficult to Navigate. Thanks Kerry D.
I just bought one of the Uniden 980 Bearcat CB/SSB radios. I have a ProCom Patriot 12" antenna about 32 ft off the ground on a metal pole and I ran a factory made 75' of RG-8 coax. I had about 15' left over that I just coiled up on the ground near the antenna for now in case I need to go higher with the mast pole. The radio itself has a built in digital SWR meter but I wanted to check it with a traditional meter. I have an old Radio Shack Micronta 21-525B which has functioned flawlessly for many years for all of my mobile CB radios. It has an 18 inch jumper made from RG59 which is 75 ohm which hooks to the radio then the Micronta SWR hooks to my new RG8 going to the antenna. When I key the mike and try to set the CAL function the meter jumps everywhere and won't seem to calibrate. Do you think that the RG59 on the radio side of the meter and RG8 on the antenna side would cause the SWR meter to go haywire? Can the two types of coax be mixed? A penny for your thoughts. Thanks for a great site.
Hi all I have a ALINCO DX-R8E HF and I am having trouble getting other SDR software to run I can the clone software to work fine. But if I run KGSDRE it just crashes I got it to work once but never again I have tired different comparability setting for windows but still won't run. My PC is running windows 10 would It help to run the software on a older version of windows
Just subscribed to your channel I am a technican my callsign is K4TEP Stuyding for my General look forward to you making videos to help anyone study the recent edtion of the General book I look forward to Getting on HF more Enjoy your videos 73s from K4TEP
+K4TEP Good luck with your studies! The videos I've made for General are still pretty current at ke0og.net/general.
Thanks Dave Enjoy your videos keep up the great work my friend 73s K4TEP
The new NanoVNA make the MFJ equipment look like junk.
The NanoVNA is priced far below any of the previous analyzers and it is very good, according to reviews I've seen (for example in QST as well as on YT).
The new integrated circuits have created a revolution in the antenna analyzer market.
A good analyzer can be very educational to show you exactly how your antenna looks to your transmitter and you can evaluate other components too, like coils, capacitors, dummy loads & matching networks.
For the ham who wants to go a little beyond rag chewing, a good antenna analyzer is a lot of fun.
.
Hey Dave. I am studying for my Ham ticket and have been in 11 meters for 50 years. I am in the middle of an 8 element cubical quad build and in the mean time putting up an imax2000 in a very noisy area full of rf. I am going to mount it on the ground on a 2 foot pipe and use lm -400 feed line so here is the question. I am thinking of running 70 to 100 36 foot radials on the earth from the base out into the flat yard..... I am using 22 gauge solid copper for this. I will be connecting the radials to an aluminum square at the base with bolts and nuts, Do you feel that this set up will help the max? Please lend your thoughts. :)
+Ric Steel Hi Ric, I'm not familiar with CB practice. You'll only achieve the desired gain from the cubical quad if it is up in the air by at least half a wavelength. The cubical quad is a balanced antenna, so is less sensitive to ground losses, so under normal conditions, you shouldn't need to augment the ground with radials. Good luck with your experiments, and good luck with your studying to become a ham! 73, Dave, KEØOG
Hi Dave. I was interested in finding out the affect on SWR as the resistance increases with the height of the antenna and would you expect ~50Ω at optimum height?
Hi Dave, I am very new to the hobby (however I did used to do radio year's ago via CB), in my area there's most activity on 2m Band (i.e. around the 145MHz area), but I live in quite a signal blindspot (or deaf zone), I am very keen to manufacture my own antenna and I have seen through some avenue's of research that triple stacked 5/8 vertical's have quite a high gain, do I need allow further calculation's in my antenna length and would they need to be capacitively coupled, my assumption is basically make 3x 5/8 ground-wave antenna's and stack them on each other giving the 0.2 factor per full half wave and keep the loading coil per 5/8 wave ( wound as 5/8 exposed active + 1/8 wave of loading coil so therefore still being naturally resonant at 50 ohms, but electrically a 3/4 wave, just physically shorter).... 73's from the UK and cheers (ps I should get my callsign either next week or the week after)
Craig, I've not heard of that particular approach used before, but it sounds like it could work. You might simply try Yagi which isn't very big at 2 m. With FM links, you either close the link or you don't; there doesn't seem to be anything in between. Good luck with your experiments!
Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing. I go near your area sometimes as a truck driver. route I take is moab, Monticello, Cortez. Usually take it when Wyoming I80 closes. Be safe up there as I know you get some crazy snow. 73's.
Hi Dave, thanks for the photo at the end. I didn't know where you are. My wife and I are going to take a vacation/road trip and have that railroad on our plans. This will be in 2020. 73
's. Great video, I am new to this game:)
Hi.wud u be able to help me tune a stub tuned HF vertical homebrew antenna? It is a 1/4 wave on 20m & has 1/4 wave decoupling stubs at 1/4 on 15 & 10m.need help tuning.using an mfj 269. Thanks,nat vu2nta
Dave, you have a wealth of knowledge. However, for us beginners you sometimes use a term such as SWR without explaining what that is. I find this in many of your tutorials and it becomes a bit frustrating trying to understand what you are teaching.
You can't teach a novice using terminology that YOU understand but we beginners DON'T...
Hi Dave....I spent a few weeks out in your area....went to Pikes Peak...rode the Durango Silverton RR then drove from Colorado Springs to Bryce Canyon.......just totally amazing stopped at Ouray....we were able to get to stay inside the Bryce Canyon Park......the skies were incredible...I made this trip between my second and third years of law school as I knew I would seldom have the time or the money to do it again.
Well, its a great idea what you're doing. But I am indeed a beginner as you state in the beginning, and we beginners are your target audience. In that case, you missed the point here a few times. First, you called the piece of equipment an "antenna tuner" once. ( I am pretty sure there is such a thing as an antenna tuner that does different things than this analyzer does). Also, you don't say much about the insulators. Where do you get them? Is one kind better than another? Why do you need them on both ends. To boot, when you actually hooked up the feed line you went fast motion. It would have been nice to actually see how you did that. Also, the soldering, where were you soldering and why. What good is my antenna if its only resonant with low SWR only on one frequency in the entire band? Am I limited to trying to QSO just to that one little frequency? I am not criticizing! No no no not criticizing because it is not easy to put yourself in the shoes of a true beginner if you have all the knowledge already floating around in your head! But please try. Don't take anything for granted. Beginners are interested in EVERYTHING you do and say. Thank you for deciding to help us newbies with such a large undertaking. It is very much appreciated, and hopefully you can address my questions so that I can walk away from this first video thinking "yesss! I got it!" At the moment I'm walking away with too many questions. Got several answered for sure, but still need the other questions answered. Thank you for reading this. Dave n9dms
(Is there a formula) How do I determine what length of coax to cut to make my transmission line resonant (X=0) for a given MHZ? What about Jumper Lengths?
Dave what do you think about using a NanoVNA instead of an antenna analyzer?
Hey Dave:
So excited to see this column! Another great topic and one I always have questions about.
1. When testing antenna wire length. I've heard that you can just crease the wire end and that will shorten the wire while testing before you cut it permanently. Is that the case and how much of a crease does it take? Say I want to build a dipole on 160 meters. My yard is way too small, can I do a series of 90 degree bends without that effecting the total length and performance of the antenna?
2. When designing an antenna. What determines if you need a balun, choke, etc. and what type 1:1, 4:1, etc. Why do they have those LC matching networks? How to choose the network type? Coils? Capacitance hats? Etc. (Might have answered my question with what I said below) Can't you just match the antenna by changing the length? Guess that would change the SWR?
3. In the video the analog ohms meter was showing 40 but the digital meter was showing R = 33. Are both those numbers the same, the analog part is just off?
3. Prob a dumb question, but does high SWR affect an antenna's ability to receive like it does on transmit?
4. A bit past the 15 min mark, in the video it's showing a 1.5 SWR and a R=32. You said the Impedance is a lil low because of the low antenna height. Is their a way to correct this so you have the 1.5 SWR and R=50. If so how would you correct it? How much does this effect performance by having the Impedance a bit low, but SWR spot on?
5. Is their a way to know how bad a 160 meter antenna would perform only 20 feet off the ground? What is the best way to design it to make up for the shortcomings of low mounting height or if I purchased a commercial dipole, how would I change its design?
6. Showing us how to design an antenna in EZNEC would be a fun video, using a simple off the shelf antenna for the inputs. That might help to understand/visualize how the software works better.
7. Say I design a ¼ wave 2 meter vertical antenna and have a off the shelf antenna. Something like a Diamond Antenna CP22E. Is their cheap/easy way to test the performance of each antenna? Like measuring it’s signal strength 100 feet away so I know what one performs better/goes further?
7. I have a Radiowavz EFH20 end fed half wave antenna. I mounted it to a steel pole. SWR was thru the roof. I put a piece of PVC around the steel pole and that seemed to fix it. I also have a 2 meter antenna on the same pole above it. How do I know if they are interacting with each other? SWR on both is good. But the 2 meter just doesn’t perform like it used to. If I take the end fed off it works great.
FYI: You might want to change the video title a bit so it’s more descriptive. For example, “understanding antenna analyzers - ask Dave video 1”. That way when people search in Google the video will show up more often in search results.
Thanks again for all your helpful videos!
Craig Mullins - KK6FFZ
Craig Mullins Hi Craig, lots of good questions! I'll try to address these in forthcoming videos. Also, in response to your suggestion, I made the title more descriptive.
Hi Dave, I am enjoying this series as well as the station reference series. My question is with coax length. I purchased a AA230 and was watching some videos on its use and came across a few videos where they suggest that the length of coax be cut to the electrical 1/2wave of the lowest frequency in use or odd multiples of it. Yet many videos and sources claim besides the loss per 100ft, the length should be as you stated long enough to go from antenna to transceiver. Which is it? Or does it depend.
Excellent, clear exposition. Could have made the point that the length measurments relate to half a wavelength (half wave dipole).
Dave thank you. I don't make comments all the time. I can't believe I your first ask Dave. Been wanting to put loop for 40mts. Been off the air for sometime. At my age you have to keep things to a point of I can do it
73 KQ4CD
Do you need an antenna analyzer? No. But I also drive a car and I don't hunt my food and I have an employer I work at. If I want to go back to the old days okay but I want to live in a more modern world and I definitely want an antenna analyzer.
Dave just developed a dipole exactly the way I've been doing for decades; more recently I've been using the mfj259.
I use my internal SWR meter on the the radio however I do have a question about my analog meter on my radio. I have the IC-7300. This IC-7300 has an analog meter. When I set my IC-7300 to 100 watts and key up my mic the forward power is suppose to show 100 watts of forward power being put out however my analog meter shows only 35 watts of forward power being put out. What do you think could be causing such a huge discrepancy between the 100 watts the IC-7300 is set to and and the actual amount of forward power (35watts) that is being put out?
Hi Dave, you've been great as far as answering questions I've asked so I thought I'd get back to you with a rather unconventional fix. I wrote a few days ago on how to remove "dirty" electricity from my rig....I'm using a Generac 800 watt generator.
A friend gave me the phone number of an engineering outfit....I called the number and the guy I needed to talk to was on vacation but the fellow on the phone told me to wrap the generator in aluminum foil.....that's right, aluminum foil. Well, I was ready to try anything and ridiculous as it sounds it worked. It cleaned up the RFI and sounded better than power from the power company does. I'm not kidding about that...the sound is better than I can get from house current. Now I need to figure out a way to make this work and not burn the generator up in the process. Thanks for your help.
-Pat KD9DST
Thank you not a ham just interesting stuff look forward to browsing your videos . Wish I paid attention when helped my dad do this as a child. close to ground you tune a little higher or lowerr on band can't remember , once up you tune by adjusting the middle height. And yes its was a lot of adjust nipping to radio shack back down adjusting lol especially low bands seemed to have a narrower sweet spot.
Excellent video tutorial. I'm borrowing an analyzer soon to use getting a new dipole tuned and in the air. This information will help a lot with that project. Down the track I plan to buy an analyzer, probably the current version of the very one you used here. Thanks David, and best wishes.
Are those "back of the envelope" calculations? Funny if you did that on purpose. I thought you had to actually clip the ends of the ant? How did you lengthen it?
When I made the antenna, I cut some extra wire and folded it back on itself. Thus, to lengthen the antenna, I just fold less back.
David Casler
@@davecasler That would be 'fold and try,' not cut-n-try, LOL! Good stuff though. I wish the MFJ units didn't skip over certain frequency bands. It's a silly thing to limit them to just Ham frequencies.
his is not for this video but i am asking a big question on some groups they keep saying you buy this or that radio so when the HIT hit the fan so the question is if someone drop a EMT or EMb or some thing like that they say to have your radios in some kind of bags or some thing but if all Electronic are going to die what can we do as Hams to have radios that will work. what about cars pocket AM/Fm radios store them without batterys or what
K9PDE Jerry Quigley
Dave, please ignore my question on extremely high db loss. I've chalked it up to the ignorance of a novice. I tried to measure coax loss with an antenna on the other end. Once I took the coax off the antenna my loss was .4 db. Am satisfied with that.
Hi Dave 🖐 The image from home, Silverton, is that in Washington. My Grandfather used to spend a lot of time there 75 years ago or so.
David your getting better and better,keep up the good work on your new platform!
worksmartpaul Thank you!
Great educational video... The calculation section was extremely valuable. Thank you.
Michael VA6XMB
I love your videos. Very professional. First time I understood frequency and lengths. I finally found a good teacher.
Please do a show on QCX+ firmware update using both the Arduino Uno and other methods. There is not very much on that on RUclips
Great video about Antenna Analyzers and the height of dipoles does matter. Keep up the good work Dave Casler KE0OG. 73, WA6TWJ Dave Mauldin USA
Hey, Dave. My 8010 efhw came with recommendations to put it up 20 feet in the middle and 6 ft up on the ends. 80 meters had a high SWR. So I then put the middle up around 57 feet...ends at about 5 ft, grounded just below box. Works great but power was off. I am barefooting. All bands. All below 2:1. So two counterpoises seemed to improve everything some, including the SWRs and power out. I live on near the East coast near Charleston. Have reaced Chechnia, Italy, Croatia., Arizona, Nebrasca with good reports so far. So, while barefooting, I guess that will do. I ordered a Signalink USB and am looking forward to doing some RTTY and digital stuff. Not a CW guy yet but working on that, too. Thanks for what you do! Gonna copy this to Kevin, too. 73
Dag nab it. I cut it off, and it's still too short. LOL. Anyways, thank you so much. I wanna get an antenna analyzer.
Can I use uncoated 1/8 ss cable as and 80 meter loop. 12 awg did not hold up to good
I was selling some ham gear. So I get a guy a electrician wants to talk to mother and sister via radio. sister 25 mikes away. he wanted to buy my 2mm. Not a ham licensed person. I explained lic, he seems to think amazon sells radios, 100 watts, that would do the trick. I warned him they may sell you a amateur radio (s), but you'd be illegal. Fines, jail etc, could be in your future. Told him a repeater would do it, but you need a lic. Are there radios non licensed people can use. CB with big antenna, I guess, illegal power. I said a commercial fm company, like cabs, cops etc. But you pay fee's. I warned him, but I know of no legal handi's that would do what he wants?
Nice start, Dave. You are an outstanding presenter. I’m a Colorado boy now displaced to the Pacific N W.