Howdy. It has been many months since my last confession.
I like spending time in the hills. Most of the time I get out in the bush to go hunting. Recently, though, I renewed my amateur radio operators certificate after a break of around 32 years.
There is a lot of radio interference at home, so today I carried my gear up to a local skyline. Using a beloved '9' I cut a pole from a pest plant and lashed my commercially=made vertical antenna to the top of it. It was a great idea, but I have never used gear like this until recently and I didn't really think about the necessity of a counterpoise wire or ground plane. When that antenna is fixed to my car roof-rack it works well, but today it was lacking. After a little reflection I realised my error, so I found a nearby wire fence which could act as a mounting point and a ground plane.
I was pleased with the lack of interference up in the hills. I didn't manage to get a reply to my calls using low power, but it was a good 'shakedown cruise' for my gear and I will be better prepared next time. If everything worked perfectly as planned, life might become a little boring.
Here is my initial set-up...
And here is how things ended up....
I like spending time in the hills. Most of the time I get out in the bush to go hunting. Recently, though, I renewed my amateur radio operators certificate after a break of around 32 years.
There is a lot of radio interference at home, so today I carried my gear up to a local skyline. Using a beloved '9' I cut a pole from a pest plant and lashed my commercially=made vertical antenna to the top of it. It was a great idea, but I have never used gear like this until recently and I didn't really think about the necessity of a counterpoise wire or ground plane. When that antenna is fixed to my car roof-rack it works well, but today it was lacking. After a little reflection I realised my error, so I found a nearby wire fence which could act as a mounting point and a ground plane.
I was pleased with the lack of interference up in the hills. I didn't manage to get a reply to my calls using low power, but it was a good 'shakedown cruise' for my gear and I will be better prepared next time. If everything worked perfectly as planned, life might become a little boring.
Here is my initial set-up...
And here is how things ended up....
