Ham Radio Isn't Fun Without A Working Antenna
(hilltops don't hurt either)

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How many times have I learned this lesson?

The Rockmite (40 m., 0.75 W) on a 6 foot indoor antenna?  Useless.
The Rockmite on a 60 foot, end fed wire running from the living room to ten feet high in a tree outside, tuned?  Receive only.

The guys winning contests on one watt have good antennas, probably beams at 75 feet.

APRS tests on the bike.  (See picture at back.)  First I tried the 2-meter rubber duck barely sticking out of a backpack directly on the radio in the backpack.  One APRS packet per hour-long trip.  Increase from HT power to 20 W?  Ditto.  Then I tried a Diamond SRH-999 in the same configuration.  Similar results.  Then I tried different bands (1294.5, 441.5, 50.62 and even in-band, 144.99 in) running a crossband digi from home to 144.39.  This worked up to about half a mile from the house (driveway only on 23 cm).  Better on 70 cm, there was a nice gap in the hills from about five miles away where I got into ... my own house, and that SRH-999 is a nice end fed half wave on 70 cm....  This gave me the idea that I really needed a good, well placed antenna.  Acquired a Smiley extensible, half wave, end fed 2 meter whip and rubber banded it on the end of a two foot wood pole that stuck out of the backpack.  (This is what is shown in the picture at back.)  This worked as well as could be expected for 5 watts out, hiking or biking.

True, the local APRS infrastructure effectively ignores our little valley except for mobile antenna/power levels.  Hilltops don't hurt either.  That's where the one packet got in from on those early attempts.

I strongly suspect that most of my DSP-10 operating satisfaction is due to the 2M12.  It's just a 7 watt rig with a 600K front end (estimated), after all.  But it does neat things that no other radios do!

Then there was the time that I used all the spare wire I had to put up a 160 foot dipole and tried to load it on 160 meters.  The radiation angle was high.  One station heard me trying to call but never pulled me out.  They were less than 100 miles away and 40 over S-9 to me.  This was during a Top Band Contest and he was the loudest of many stations.  I took all that down and purchased a real antenna for the next try.  (See the Gap at back.)

Sometimes it's even injurious.  I spent an extra half hour at the FD 2002 site trying to make a 40 meter contact on 70 feet of wire, tuned and end-fed, draped over chaparral.  Finally contacted one local, but this put the end of our mountain bike descent from the mountain well after dark and that's how I ended up stopping cold in a rut, going over the handlebars, and breaking my arm.

And then there was FD-88 with the JPL ARC.  I was running the satellite station trying to work AO-10 which was nearly straight up on a beam that could only point towards the horizon.  After a fruitless afternoon, finally made that one contact (and nearly two others) during the twenty minutes that AO-10 (and the sun, by coincidence) were setting and in the beam pattern.

So, next time I'm about to go out on some trip where amateur radio is important or incidental, remind me to think hard about what a good antenna ought to be, not just throw in a spool of wire, to attract TSA attention....

By contrast, I've been very happen with all center fed dipoles I've ever used, and the Gap DX-IV (except on 20), the Telex Hygain satellite antennas I was using 20 years ago, and I really like the 2M12.  Yes, those are good antennas.

A good rule of thumb might be:  "A good rig will get out on a minimalist antenna or a minimalist rig will get out on a good antenna, but minimalist antennas and minimalist rigs don't mix well."


created 2007 October 9, cbd