40/80 dual band vertical dipole antenna update

Let me first thank the Creator for another bright and sunny Saturday and I pray that it remains like this all day long.

This weather is great for antenna work and I think quite a bit may be planned for today at more than one [1] QTH in V4.

This morning I expect to do some more work on the dual band, single feed line 40/80 top and bottom load vertical dipole antenna. I now have the SWR down to around 1.5:1 on 40 and 80, but it is not at the frequency that I prefer. On 40 meters it is around 7.165 MHz and on 80 meters it is around 3.613 MHz. It looks like I am getting there, and I have not yet deployed the Autek RF1 analyzer.

This morning I checked into the 80 meter weather net on 3.815 MHz, and only when the net controller said I was a bit light did I realize that I was running only 5 watts, and I had not even adjusted the matching between the rig/coax feed line/antenna with the built in antenna tuner. Reception also seem to be better than usual for most of the participating stations.

I also worked into Maryland on 7.195 MHz an hour or so later. I did not solicit a signal report, because as long as I could be heard in the US that is good enough for me. Usually with the sun this high in the sky most horizontal dipoles have difficulty making the trip to the mainland. The US signals were coming in at the usual RS59+ just as they did on the previous 40 meter top and bottom load vertical dipole antenna, which had a 28-foot tall vertical element. In this dual band configuration the 40-meter vertical element is now only 17-ft tall.

So, today is for fine tuning the antenna[s], getting the SWR closer to 1.0:1 using a single feed line. The preliminary tests during tuneup are encouraging. This antenna is going to be a permanent installation, but it will still be engaged in a certain amount of experimentation. I now have two [2] spare fold over masts for a new set of vertical antenna experimentation, so maybe 160 meters will be next.

After lunch on Saturday, the action usually moves to the St Kitts Nevis Anguilla Amateur Radio Society HQ [SKNAARS] at Taylor's where we had planned to re-install the antenna over the last week. If that is completed today we may have some operating fun on Monday and Tuesday next week, the public holidays. The HQ antenna was an 80-meter top and bottom loaded dipole antenna that I temporarily knocked up using four [4] EMT pipes bolted together. The first contact into Europe [PA] using an Icom 735 created some excitement, and resulted in one of the hams present building an 80-meter T-cap the following weekend, and he is still using it up to today.

The SKNAARS HQ's T-cap antenna went through last year's bad weather and was only taken taken down last week because one nylon guy got compromised, and the antenna was threatening to fall down. I believe that we can take a google look at the SKNAARS HQ site.

On google maps search for v44kf then click on my saved places navigate to v44k and zoom in. I don't know if these links will work, they seem to be erratic at times, but you can get there manually too. Alternatively, you may use google earth and fly to v44k, stkitts ham radio. I would like to assume that almost everyone has FREE google earth.

If you want to get an appreciation of how close the V4 hams are, while still on google earth, fly to v4 ham radio and you should see my bookmarks for almost all the hams and then some. In google maps all these book marks show up on one screen. Enjoy your trek around V4, and if you are in real time you are fortunate like us, sorry, everyone else is dated.

73

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