Beautiful Weekend

 The fall weather is some of the best weather to be outside in.  My only operating position is outside so this is helpful.  This past weekend I was able to test my vertical fishing pole antenna.  Saturday was sunny but the wind was cool and the temperature was only 6C.  I've not gotten used to that just yet this fall so my hands were getting cold at times.  I try to set up out of the wind but sometimes it's just not entirely possible.  Anyway I was able to make a couple of contacts using the FT-817 and the MFJ-16010 L tuner.  The instructions say that no radials or counterpoise is necessary.  I tried it this way on Friday/Saturday and was able to make contacts with Arkansas and Georgia, USA and Winnipeg, Manitoba on 17m and 15m.  All 3 stations are just over 1000 miles from here.

On Sunday it was almost 16C and less windy so that was great.  I added four 17' radials laid out at 90 degrees to each other.  I had contact with Eastern France which was 3700 miles on the 12m band.  I'm not saying that the radials helped but they didn't seem to hinder so I will keep with them unless I find otherwise.

I hear a lot of traffic but most of the CW is too fast for me so I have fewer opportunities for contacts but that's okay.  I can only sit for short periods of time so that works just fine for me.  My receiving speed will improve as I get back into the swing of things. 

Don't they say a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work?  How can this not be enjoyable? 

Cheese es 72/73

Awakening

 It has been a very long time since I have posted anything on here mostly because I have been inactive in the hobby.  I spent a lot of my spare time dedicated to pipe band work/play and when things get busy in life our "lower tier" hobbies go onto the sidelines.  This happened with radio.  I also spent time working with vintage stereo receivers/speakers and I still am a big fan of physical media.  I do, however, think that the time has come to get back on the air.  I have actually set my bagpipes down for now for a number of reasons which I won't get into here but they are not gone...just off to the side after 13 years.

This time of year always screams "antenna work" for some reason.  I think I have always been more of a winter operator so this feels like the start of the season...kind of like a hockey team.  This past weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving) I finally took some time to try out one of the projects I have been planning for.  I had purchased a 20' fishing pole similar to the old Wonderpole I had used for years which no longer seems to be available.  I am trying out a "random" wire vertical (29') wrapped around the pole and mounted on a camera tripod with an MFJ-16010 L-tuner which is designed for random wire antennas.  The tuner says that, for a random wire, no ground wire is needed.  Yesterday I set this up for the first time and decided to try it both ways.  I first tried with no wire on the ground side and then I added one because it just feels wrong without and I could find no info on line where someone has used the 16010 in this manner.  I did see one YouTube video using it in this manner without a radial or counterpoise and they seemed to be having success however the video was short and not a lot of detail was given.  I connected a 17' radial.  I went through the bands figuring out the settins on the tuner for each band and was able to get a good match on almost all of the bands from 80 metres thru 15.  12 did not match well.  I set up my chair beside the tripod and it felt comfortable again.  I have missed it.

I heard some good activity briefly on 20 and 30 but the bands were in rough shape yesterday afternoon here in eastern Ontario.  I will venture out again later in the week or next weekend to try again.  I was forced to use a power supply as my old battery had lost its ability to hold a charge.  I need a new battery as I hate using a power supply which can be noisy.

here are a couple of photos of the setup on the tripod:

 

The dowel slides into the fishing pole and sits on the 1"x 2" scrap of wood in a hole I drilled so it would have some stability.  It seems pretty solid.  More testing to come this week and hopefully some contacts with my rusty CW.

Cheers es 72/73