Antenna Tune-a-Thon
Because of HOA restrictions in my Pearland neighborhood, I
have been using a magnetic loop antenna located in my ham shack on top of a file
cabinet by the window. Not so good SWR as expected since
not out in the open but usable with antenna tuner. Still good enough to
get WAS and WAC as well as 77 counties at 40 Watts. Previous to that I used to
have a ham-stick dipole in the attic but after moving my radio equipment to a
different room rerunning the cable to the new room was not something I wanted to
do. I have used the ham-stick dipole with a longer pole for one POTA activation
as shown below but decided to get a better antenna for POTA activations. The MLA
is limited to 45 watts and has very tight bandwidth. The tight bandwidth is fine
for digital modes but makes hunting SSB very difficult. The criteria I used were
as follows:
·
Be able to setup by myself
·
Be able to run 100 Watts
·
Be able to work 6M, 10M, 12M, 15M, 17M, 20M, 30M,
and 40M
·
Be able to have wide bandwidth at SWR below 1.5
·
Be able to setup in the wind using guy wires and
weights
·
Be able to setup in my small backyard for tuning
and testing
My backyard is too small for something like a DX-Commander
and after a lot of searching the web I ended up getting the Deluxe Budipole
Package. For tunning the MLA I have been using a NonoVNA which works great
hooked up to a laptop in my ham shack but using it outside is very difficult.
You basically cannot read the little NonVNA screen outside so I ended up getting
the RigExpert AA-35 Zoom antenna analyzer which has big fonts and I can read
outside for POTA activations.
In any event, on April 26 I spent half the day trying
different configurations of the Budipole , tuning and recording the results
which I share herein. That day was very windy. I first setup the mast and guy
wires as follows:
·
Tied 12 pound weights to each leg
·
Attached the guy wires to the mast
·
Extended the mast without the antenna
·
Staked the guy wires
·
Lowered the mast and attached the antenna
| PreciseLoop HG-1 MLA in my ham shack | ||
|
|
|
ot so good SWR as expected since not out in the open but usable with antenna tuner. Still good enough to get WAS and WAC as well as 70+ counties at 40 Watts. |
| MLA was in the backyard |
|
Good SWR but very tight bandwidth making hunting SSB very difficult. Small tripod not usable in the grass and wind. Precise does sell a bigger tripod. |
| 15 Meter Horizontal Dipole | SWR | Notes |
 |
  |
In this configuration the Take-Off angle is 80 degrees and as such the documentation states that you should be able to work medium range domestic using single hop propagation. SWR below 1.5 for the whole band. |
| 20 Meter Horizontal Dipole | SWR | Notes |
 |
 |
In this configuration the Take-Off angle
is 90 degrees and as such the documentation states that you should be
able to work medium range domestic using single hop propagation |
| 20 Meter Vertical with Counterpoise Radial | SWR | Notes |
 |
 |
For this configuration you tune by changing the length of the counterpoise radial. Excellent SWR but took a while to tune. Radial needs to be 2 or 3 feet over the ground. |
| 20 Meter L Configuration | SWR | Notes |
 |
 |
In this configuration the Take-Off angle is 80 degrees and as such the documentation states that you should be able to work medium range domestic using single hop propagation |
| 20 Meter Vertical Dipole 1 | SWR | Notes |
 |
 |
In this configuration the take-off angle is 25 degrees, and as such the documentation states you should be able to work DX possibly intercontinental via single or mult-hops. |
| 20 Meters Vertical Dipole 2 | ||
 |
  |
In this configuration the take-off angle is 25
degrees, and the documentation states you should be able to work DX
possibly intercontinental via single or
mult-hops. |