This month our regular club meeting was held at El Nuevo Mexico and after our meeting we had a presentation by Bruce Darling, KI5KET. Bringing great experience and about 10 antennas. It was a real interesting display he shared.
Attendance was good at the May 8 meeting. Good food too! Come join us at 8 to order breakfast or at 9 to attend the regular meeting.Steve invited our long-time member, Ev, to join from winter wonderland in Iowa Falls, Iowa via FaceTime!
Bruce said that he likes antennas that go up and come down in 5 minutes. Some of these might work well in HOA intensive environments!
The first antenna was a Chameleon vertical section antenna. Bruce really likes the quality and flexibility of this antenna. Click on logo above to view the Chameleon website.
This is the Chameleon (CHA) Hybrid Mini. Link in image is to the user guide. Seems like a very thorough design.
This is the CHA tripod. A carbon fiber and robust stable design for small antennas, 22 pounds or less. Link on picture is to the info page.The next antenna is a Chelegance MC-750. The elements are clearly marked in Mhz (similar is JC-12)Click on logo above to view the chelegance website.Carrying case and ground radials for Chelegance antenna.Chelegance ground radial attachment area – banana plugs.The next antenna shared was the REEL POTA-ble Antenna (POTA stands for Parks On The Air). Operates on 40 to 10 meters. A half-wave end-fed antenna using teflon insulated wire. Link to website is in picture link ( be advised this site loads slowly ).The next antenna has a jumper that you use to change the center frequency. Radioddity, HF-008; 80 to 6 meters by changing the tap and adjust the length of the riser. The link to this antenna’s specification page is by clicking on the image.Click on logo above to view radioddity website home page.Slinktenna 1 – right side (next was a slinky antenna), 80 to 6 Meters, 1:1 balun in the middle. Position it 5 to 8 ft above ground. Click on image for an example website using slinky for an antenna. I did not find where you could buy one but it has instructions for making one.Slinktenna 1 left side – Click on image for another example of slinky antenna.Bruce brought another Slinky. A Do-It-Yourself one that Bruce came up with. Use as a vertical and 9:1 UNUN. Amazon slinky and a good UNUN 9:1 from DX Engineering.com (a good source).Click on logo above to view DX Engineering website home page.Bruce shared 3 different end-fed half wave antennas.
Left – PACtenna 1:9 UNUN, requires a tuner, up 31-31 feet and a counterpoise. Middle – CHA – really flexible comes tuned for 40 and 20M and with adapter 17, 12 10 meters, no tuner needed, Right – home brews, DIY red post to wire and black gets the counterpoise (16 ft) BNC male to the radio G90 with a tunerClick on logo above to view Packtenna website home page.
Bruce is a Geologist by trade and experimenter at heart. He loves the outdoors and is usually at the after lunch mini-field day on Wednesday over at Bob Bryant Park. You are invited to come and participate each week. Our thanks to Bruce for the great information!
