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No folks...I did not die. Just close. I haven't changed my HF antenna setup since last post as I've had some health issues, but I'mn bach and working on that fan dipole, getting its center weight down. I have added a Kenwood 271A to the shack and took the easy way out and put up a J=Pole on...

HM...length of the wires wasn't the weight problem, it was how I constructed the center collector. Look at my avatar and you'll see its a bit weighty...LOL. It needs to go on a diet.

OK...gave up on getting the fan dipole up...TEMPORARILY! One local Ham loaned me a G5RV and another gave me an old style MFJ Versa Tuner that apparently gets passed around to newbies around here to help them get on the air...(y) The issue with the fan dipole is unsupported weight at the middle...

Thanks...will do. BTW...this is a b**tch of a one-man-job. WHEW!

OK...putting the antenna up today, and have yet another question... If you have an antenna that is balanced...is supposed to be balanced, that is...and you add a 1:1 balun before raising it, just in case it isn't balanced so you don't have to bring it back down to add it, what is the result...

There is rope in the trees!!! Tomorrow the antenna will (finally) be up!

Well, a month...and some health issues (no, I didn't fall out of the tree)... later, I'm back...and the damn antenna STILL isn't up!

I like my Baofeng HT's so far, as far as what they are intended for...camping, hiking, emer communications in car, but have found they suck as a rag chewing radio. The low power doesn't bother me...I'm real close to a kick-butt repeater...but they sure get hot if you try to have a long winded...

Does anyone have the TYT H9000D 2 meter radio, and if so, are you happy with it? Pros and cons?

Slingshot...fail (again). Fishing pole...fail. Potato gun...fail. My tennis game used to be pretty good 35 years ago. Maybe I could borrow a racket, tie a monofilament line to a tennis ball, and try hitting that over the righrt branch...

Only one thing to add tonight...I'm going to have to practice a lot more or build a potato cannon. It seems my slingshot skills have deteroriated somewhat over the years...

An interesting article on rope types, specifically written with use in amature radio in mind, by a chemical engineer who is also a Ham.: http://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/contest/rope.php

I've got a 1000 ft spool of REAL mil-spec 550 paracord for the main support line that will run thru a screw eye in the top of the 4" PVC collector and for haul ropes, and I'm using 50 pound test UV protected mono to keep the radials streched out. That should do the trick...

OK...another question... I'm wanting to put this antenna up with the center collector for the fan dipole at ~70 feet. I have two perfect trees to string it between that give me plenty of height. But... I am having trouble finding someone to climb the trees. In my younger days I'd have done...

See #377 and #379

I started to make some 3" insulators from PVC, but then I thought about it and decided not to. My thinking was: 1. The closest any of the wires will be to the tree is about 10 ft for the 80 meter band, and it will be connected with 50# test monofiliment, already a good insulator. 2. An...

A "stopper" for the spreaders, one in each wire, and a stopper going the other way for the monofilament I'm using to extend each bands wire to the tree, keeping everything pointed in the right direction. I know that every inch counts toward length of each wire, from its tip to the feedline...

Antenna question time...in a wire dipole, does it matter if you tie a knot in the 14 ga wire a couple of feet before the end of the wire? edited for typos and spelling

LOL...I COULD have done worse. I COULD have said, "Breaker, breaker...anybody got their ears on?"

Ham etiquette question: 10 meter sucks today (and the fan dipole is still waiting for me to find a tree climber anyway) so I thought I'd see if there was anyone close on the radio, specifically listening to a repeater a couple miles from my house, that is a 2 meter repeater. I turned on my...