Latest acquisitions

Endfed HF Multiband Antenna Small Garden 20mtr Long Covering 6m To 160m

I bought this from eBay (later to discover it was made by a member here), very reasonable cost and highly effective. I live in a small flat with no access to mounting outside antennas and have tried everything from magnetic loops to dipoles. Eventually I managed to figure out how to run this and was very pleased to say it is highly effective, today 40m was full of very good signals. I will need to pass my exam next week to see how well it transmits, if it is as good as receive I will be laughing.

The antenna is very well-made with a custom unun, the cable is very flexible and easy to run. I am sure this would perform far better outside but seems to do the job really well. I won't mention the member's name, as am not sure if they wish it to be known in an open forum.

Vectronics VC300DLP Antenna Tuner

Having bought a cheap automatic antenna tuning unit of Chinese origin, it was found to be slightly lacking, I decided to look for something that could manage the bands and antenna I am using.

The Ventronics is quite a heavy build and features an SWR /power meter, dummy load and all the inputs you could reasonably expect to use, I understand the dummy load can take up to 300W PEP. There are two sides to the main selector switch, with the left being used without the tuner being in circuit. Tuning is fairly straight forward, first set the inductance band whilst transmitter and antenna dials are set at 6, then listen for the highest noise levels, this gets you in the right ballpark. Then use the antenna and transmitter dials to fine tune, a bit more involved than pushing a button on the Chinese automatic tuner, yet yields far better results.

Sark 100 Antenna Analyser

Quite a nifty little box that does everything I want for now, nice solid metal case and seems pretty robust, nice price too. You can run scans over an antenna's range, it will beep once SWR hits 2 then beep again as SWR hits 2 again during the scan. You can measure inductance and capacitance, even hook it up to a PC via USB and have a visual report. It does do a bit more than just the basics I have mentioned, until I figure out what they do, will leave that to an update here. There is no battery fitted, yet there is access in the bottom of the unit to fit a battery pack if you have the minor skills needed to solder the connections.

Good luck with the exam.

Alan Pilot wrote:

Good luck with the exam.

Just had the password and link to TestReach arrive, roll on Saturday, this time it didn't go to spam.

13oots2 wrote:

Alan Pilot wrote:

Good luck with the exam.

Just had the password and link to TestReach arrive, roll on Saturday, this time it didn't go to spam.

Almost there now, best of luck from me too. 

Good luck with the exam Sir

13oots2 wrote:

Alan Pilot wrote:

Good luck with the exam.

Just had the password and link to TestReach arrive, roll on Saturday, this time it didn't go to spam.

are you taking the ham lincee foundation

907mrchris wrote:

13oots2 wrote:

Alan Pilot wrote:

Good luck with the exam.

Just had the password and link to TestReach arrive, roll on Saturday, this time it didn't go to spam.

are you taking the ham lincee foundation

Yes, Foundation this Saturday.

13oots2 wrote:

907mrchris wrote:

13oots2 wrote:

Alan Pilot wrote:

Good luck with the exam.

Just had the password and link to TestReach arrive, roll on Saturday, this time it didn't go to spam.

are you taking the ham lincee foundation

Yes, Foundation this 

Good luck I took my foundation licence last January my call sign is M7CUU

Good luck with your exam on Saturday.