![]() ![]() BE CERTAIN the paracord or other rope is sunlight-safe and will not rot in the ultraviolet sunlight. Then use the paracord to pull up the antenna lead. Use paracord or other synthetic rope to make the initial shot through the tree. Here's a video showing how the AirBoss worksĪNTENNA LAUNCHER – THE AIR BOSS DEMONSTRATION I prefer the AirBoss due to its power and accuracy, but if you are good with a bow or slingshot have at it. Get the far end of the EFHW as high up as you can into the tallest tree. So here are some more "gotchas" to watch for as you plan this setup. The whole setup may seem a little simplified in my post, but the devil's in the details. We do it with EFHW and OCFD antennas every Field Day and POTA event, and have used eave mounts for many member's stations, providing there is not too much strain placed on the eave mount by the mast / antenna that is attached. Regarding the antenna setup I described, I've done it many, many times with our ham radio club and members. Jock - YES, get your General! Much more fun in store there. Then replace the 4:1 balun at the base with a remote auto tuner and you have a new antenna that will scare you and will give any wire antenna a run for its $$.īut you need something without ground radials and your probably not willing to move to a place where you can have them, so back to the Cushcraft and I'll have to think about some others I've tested to see if anything stands out as acceptable performance. Add a bunch of radials just 20ft long and now the antenna wakes up and will make 10X more contacts. All others I've tested from GAP to verticals with a 4:1 balun at the base and ranging in height from 25 to 43ft sold by everyone from DX Engineering, S9, Zero Five, MFJ and the likes completely suck when ground mounted without radials. Out of all the multiband verticals I've tested without a huge ground radial system the Cushcraft series has been one of the few that I would ever endorse. That's just the way it works and if you don't have space for a lot of ground radials the performance is going to be way down. The only time a vertical will outperform a good horizontal wire antenna even on low angle DX is if it has a substantial ground radial system. If very short ground radials like 6ft long would work at your location I can vouch for the old Cushcraft R7000 and newer R7 and R8 series, they not too bad for the size but still lacking compared to a simple horizontal wire like a ZS6BKW or 40m OCFD. Many vertical antennas simply suck on the lower bands like 40 and 80m and lack of ground radials contributes to this problem. Do yourself a favor and avoid it and anything that resembles it. But its not, its a dog and a lame dog at that. The problem is many people may have only used a Comet CHA250 and they have nothing to compare it to and it made a couple of long distance contacts, which could probably easily have been done with a mobile Hamsick, and they think the antenna is great. I would completely ignore any endorsement of a Comet CHA250 or any antenna for that matter unless the person endorsing it can compare it directly to another antenna at the same location. People on dipoles will be heard just find and nobody will know you exist on the Comet. ![]() Yes on 20m you can make some contacts but try 40 or especially 80m when conditions are not so good. The Comet CHA250 is one of the worst antennas I've ever tried. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |