- Written by M0VSE
Much as I enjoy the hexbeam (and I still get a kick out of watching the SCAM12 mast go up-and-down) I have been looking for something suitable for the lower bands (40m/80m).
Not wanting to antagonize my neighbours any more than absolutely necessary. I have been thinking about a vertical, something that can be partially masked by the trees at the end of my 35m garden. This should also remove the antenna far enough from houses so that RFI isn't a problem.
- Written by M0VSE
So, not being content with my OCF Dipole, I started to investigate alternative antennas. My basic criteria were as follows:
- Support as many bands as possible
- Directional so that the majority of European stations are not S9+20
- Fit in my 7m (23 ft) x 30m (100ft) back garden
- Written by M0VSE
After experimenting with an UnUn fed long wire and having less than stellar results, I decided to try an OCF Dipole (aka Windom). The benefit of this is that it exhibits good multiband performance without taking up much more room than a random length of wire and without the need for ground planes etc.
I did quite a lot of research on which design to go for as there seems to be lots of (dis)information on the Internet about this particular antenna type. I finally settled on W8JI's design for an OCF dipole with the long leg being 80% and the short one 20%. The website describing his design is here.
- Written by M0VSE
I have been experimenting with a number of digital modes recently including PSK31/63 and RTTY but I came across an interesting article about JT65a and decided to give it a try.
So I downloaded the JT65-HF software and had a play!
The first thing that you will notice about JT65a is how structured the QSOs are. This is due to the limit of 13 characters per "over" and the fact that each over takes 1 minute (actually 48 seconds transmitting and 12 seconds waiting).
Page 4 of 5
