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
I spent my professional life writing engineering reports so doing this write-up was fun to do.
· 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
I spent my professional life writing engineering reports so doing this write-up was fun to do.