Thunderpole 5 or sirio hygain 1/2 wave

Washing line pole height and worked the world.
But that was 40 years ago on the 11m band.

Hi my swr is 1.1 on 40 FM and 1.3 on 1fm UK 40...
I will check my coax cable later with my tester just to make sure it's ok...
Her indoors won't let me have it any higher I just about got to have an eighteen footer I started off talking about the 5/8th 24 footer and the other one sounded better hahaha...
So I might be able to squeeze another 6 ft under it at a push..
I havent cut the coax down yet there is a bit of surplus at the base of the antenna, not coiled something I will look into as well....
So yesterday afternoon I had a flick about on sidebands and heard stations from America also checked out the Superbowl channel and heard the crazy Americans on their too amazing stuff

Right so I have been checking out my coax with my meter and it was fine no short...
I changed the pl plug on the antenna coax end and cut the excess able down....
So now I have less noise on the signal meter and before when I keyed up on FM and am the needle would slam to the right..
That has now stopped and it's only going to 10 on the meter so there was a problem with the plug at antenna end..
Just waiting for the people to come back on I was speaking to the other day to check how I sound now...
I'm listening to sidebands at mo love it

Just a quick update....
I haven't heard much about on ssb...
So yesterday I made a bracket for the side of my shed and put the gainmaster up about 6ft of the ground instead of 2 ...
I also trimmed the antenna to 1800 instead of 1820 brought the swr down a bit still have loads of room to bring it down further..
Anyway powered up the sidebands yesterday afternoon and was amazed by the amount of American stations coming through...
I put a few calls out but didn't get anything..
Maybe it's my rig I don't know will get someone to rig check me on ssb...
I have been bitten by the bug and am looking at a new CB a CRT ss9900 ,I do like the old cobras 148 and 360's but if you have to send them off and spend more on them to have them checked over I think it's more feasible to buy new..shame though...
All the best
Lee

Great to hear how you've been getting on with it all Lee.

The old expression with antennas is that "height is might" and I know with every antenna I've built they all definitely work better the higher you can mount them.

I wouldn't worry about hearing Americans and not getting back to them....most of them are running HUGE amounts of power shooting any skip they can find. It's been pretty exciting on those upper HF frequencies (CB bands included) just recently and roll on the summer months when it all gets really exciting!

Really good to hear your enthusiasm for it all and looking forward to further posts you make.


All the best,
Victor

Your looking at the ss9900 i had one but found it very fiddly too many tiny buttons so it didn't stay long at all.
The one i like is a very similar radio and that is the 6900.
More like the old type radios cobra and the likes have a look.

I would like to get the antenna higher Victor but her indoors won't have it..
Might just add an extra ft here and there see if she notices.
About the American stations not hearing me, people in London calling the Americans and getting back to them.
I even put 200 watts on and still nothing...
Need to have a rig check just to make sure or I will be for ever wondering it's my set up..

Alan I read a post about the ss9900 and you posted about you rid rid of it...
I have had a look at the 6900 and I like the look of that something to consider thanks....

From what i know these antennas even are low close to ground, to work they need to have open space (example not close to a building/wall unless antenna is higher) & that is why i am watching the topic with these specific antennas, because i do have very close a large higher building at west east side of me

Some info ...
I am watching the US stations almost the last 2 weeks appearing nearly every evening at eu40 band am mode (Corfu) ... as Admin said, from what i heard, for sure they are using huge power & also most using directional antennas towards USA & opposite ... the US stations reporting most times all can hear is a buzz & lot of noise because so many trying at once to reach at the same freq (example ch6)... for sure if you keep trying will reach them & apart ssb, to test the antenna, try EU40 band set at AM mode & check ch6,11,16,17,20,22,25,28 (ch6,11,28 are the strongest in my area) very sure are also reaching UK at EU40 band because some times i do hear few from Wales, Scotland, UK calling as well at the channels above & some they do get reply from the US at AM mode ... Good Luck ... (edit to me appearing about 13:00 utc & later - but time depending the day, can be later most days 1-2 hrs before gets dark)

Hi babis...
I'm quite lucky as there are no tall buildings too close to me plugs I live in a bungalow

Hi babis...
I'm quite lucky as there are no tall buildings too close to me plus I live in a bungalow ..
My antenna is about 7ft off the ground at mo and I have talked the wife into letting me raise it up another 3 metres so will see how that goes...
I have been on lsb mids yesterday 24 right up to 40 and the traffic from America was amazing even Canada .
Haven't really been on euro 40 so I will give that a listen over the next few days thank you for that...
Lee

Quick update...
Didn't really get on with the 1/2 wave gainmaster good for uk40 but for me not on ssb...
So I packed everything up a while ago...
I have been reading up on problems I have had with high swr when using my amplifier and looking into different antennas..
So I bought a thunderbolt for 10 11 metres...
I used the gainmaster antenna plus I put 3 sections of a roach pole on top to give me the height I needed..
Taped the thunderbolt to it and put it up a couple of days ago..
I haven't had chance to check it out on ssb yet but was getting out well on uk40 local though..
The swr Is 1.1 with this I'm well pleased and I bought a 1.1 balun and now my swr only goes to 1.5 with the amp on so that's a massive improvement..
If I don't get on with this antenna for ssb then I'm going to get a moxon and use that for ssb and put a 4ft firestick on top for uk40...
All the best

Good to see your update there Lee and well done for having the tenacity to stick with it.  

Here's hoping the summer skip brings you some good DX!