I went on a mission today to get my HF antenna working with my Uncle’s help!<\/p>\n
We started out testing a ‘mini g5vr junior’ off ebay, it was about $50, and… not great.<\/p>\n
Its only about 15m at its widest (both elements!)<\/p>\n
We couldn’t even get it to tune on any band.<\/p>\n
So back to the drawing board, or more the cutting board, we butchered the mini antenna and used its copper wire to repair the G5RV\u00a0I already had!<\/p>\n
With the two elements from the mini one soldered on, I was still about 40cm short of the correct length, so I cut 45cm of solid core ethernet, stripped the ends and twisted them together, and then soldered that in the mix!<\/p>\n
with the two elements the correct lengths (or close enough)<\/p>\n
we popped down the road to the park and strung the antenna between two trees about 50m apart from each other, using some rope to reach the trees.<\/p>\n
The antenna was only 2-3 meters off the ground, so not ideal, but it was great hearing voices coming through the radio again!<\/p>\n
It tunes on some bands, but not others.<\/p>\n
I think im done messing around, and ill just buy a new G5RV and not let my parents near it (theyre the reason the one I have now is broken, they didnt even keep the half they snapped off :((((( so much copper just thrown away…)<\/p>\n
The park is a good candidate, seems low noise there (compared to elsewhere, I still miss my perk in the mountains though!)<\/p>\n
There is two trees with nice high branches I am eyeing off, about 10-15 meters off the ground, and ~70m apart.<\/p>\n
If I can string it up between there, and set up camp in the middle of the two, with a little picnic table and some food, I think I could have a fun few hours!<\/p>\n
Here is some pictures of the final setup, and a youtube video showing some sweet morse and voice coming through<\/p>\n