kidphc

It is a mfj hamstick and not a hamtenna. Yes, I did a sweep. It is actually pretty wide banded. You are going to get at most 1.7 (10/11m depending on ground plane and tuning) on the edges. Pretty shocked, with the nmos (bottom loaded coils) it was much narrower. Up to 2.3 on the edges when tuning for the middle. Do I think it is incredible. No. I know enough to know that low swr doesn't mean it is a good antenna. Seems to hear well enough, been hearing Michigan and Florida on 38 usb a lot lately could be their setup with band openings. I get responses when calling at 5w on am on 11m. Not sure how far some of these people are. But for $35, I think it is great. Chose it because of cost, the fact there was no loading coil. Personally, if it weren't for covid I'd probably would of waited for hamfest probably could of gotten for about $15 then. Sorry, no captures of the nanovna. Should update, I ripped off the nmo this weekend in west Virginia. Spent some time grinding the mount a bit thinner and had to flip the nmo cap to get it to connect again. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Yeah was shocked with the copy. Especially, with digital. One dropped packet, there goes the whole message. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Got some awesome knife edge. I have to imagine it was knife edge propagation. Was in west Virginia driving through the mountains. On route 48, I was hitting k3erm, on the FTM 400, in Frederick, MD. Some 84 miles through the mountains. Couldn't hit a digitpeater some 20 miles away though. Had to double check repeaterbook. There are no other wire-x repeaters on that frequency any closer. Thought it was pretty cool. Always intresting what happens. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

If you ever get the want to be able to mount without leaving too much of a trace. I would suggest looking at pro clips. I used one for a while with my HT, I needed somewhere to clip the hand mic to. It now has a magnetic amp pattern mount on it to clip a cellphone to for APRS. https://www.proclipusa.com/product-finder/vehicle

Think I misunderstood your original post. I had always thought that mounting one upside down also accomplished the something. Reading your second post I think we are on the same page. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Don't you get more isolation by mounting it below and to the otherside? Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Nmo weren't designed to have the back side exposed to the environment (weather). I searched for a while and found water resistant ones but they aren't much different from the regular one in design. My hood mount bracket, the nmo doesn't seal well on both sides. I ended up pulling the plastic cover back, had to because the center pin broke connection. The manufacturer used hot glue to seal it up. After soldering. I ended up using hot glue to quickly fill the cap on and pressed and clamped till set. I purposely used too much so it oozed out. Then covered the whole backside with water proof rtv silicone. For the topside (way more then I normally use) I used a lot of conductive contact grease. You do not want to use to much or you will short the outer to inner. So some cleaning up is necessary. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

So does the Kydera dr-880 uv. 5 watts probably not as effective for crossband repeat but notice the current options are basically Chinese. Any reason an ht and not a mobile unit. Just curious as to the use case. I do have a friend that his house acts like a Faraday cage. So he bought a kenwood 71a to cross band to hit repeaters with his handheld in the house (when cooking during nets). He choose that one because of the autoid function on crossband repeat. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Not many handhelds that I know of with crossband repeat. Almost all the ones that I know of are higher end mobile units not ht. Most of the hams I know will only use it when walking from their truck/car to get some extra range. Say walking down the hill but trying to hit the repeater on the otherside. Personally, I found it tiresome throwing out the call sign with the mention I am cross band repeating and what frequencies. But eh I am lazy. Really only i know of capable is the Yaesu Ft51r. Not sure if even hts with true duplex are capable nowadays. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

77 years young. Got 90 year olds comming in all the time for me to work on their cars. The way they bounce around, they make me feel old and I am only 47. I am going to recommend you find a local ham club. They will help, at a store they are alot of times trying to sell you stuff. Worst with a ham club you can pay some dues make a bunch of friends without ever taking the test. You are going to want to regardless. Hope you have fun where ever you take this hobby. Some of the greatest people I have met. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

I hope the can help. Keep in mind many hams are GMRS and cb user. We are constantly trying to convert others into amateur radio. So get use to the question "when are you taking the test?" Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Mostly going to be ham stores. Best bet hro, ham radio outlet. It's a franchise so chances a location close by. Many of 70cm 440mHz properties are close to GMRS. There is always us here to try and steer the train wreck. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

You logging in with the same login? You might need to contact the admin for help.

It can. I know terrible answer. But no definitives. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Right angle jumpers are serious hit or miss. Especially, the premade ones. Some times they are barely soldered on the center pole. Rf doesn't like right angle bends much either. We use loops and the mid point of the loop for long wire antennas (refer to fold backs). Well guess what you can adjust then fold back lengths to tune antenna. Even with a foot hang off the fold back. So much so that my random wire came with specific instructions to use pulleys to create curves in order to minimize bend radius that will be seen as the electronically the end of the antenna. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

I'd leave good enough alone. If it bothers you 213x is a little more flexible. For most of my jumpers the are either rg58 or lmr200. Under a foot not much of a difference. 100 feet yeah, notice losses are by the 100 feet? Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Might have been my pics. All equipment grounded to grounding buss. Buss grounded to outside exit point, it hand a ground point why not use it. Outside exit point grounded to grounding rod. Utility box grounded to grounding rod. It is where the poly phasers are located. I try to avoid daisy chaining as much as possible. I also like to keep ground leads as straight and short as possible. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

No direct range calculation for wattage. It is just more umph to get through the noise floor. So it will get you some more distance, in perception. If you took all three in an airplane and cranked then at max wattage. All three would get the same distance. But the highest powered one would come in stronger and louder at the edges due to the umph making you heard over the noise floor (if you use squelch, it would open the squelch depending on the setting). Hence, the monitor button on most radios. When search for weak signals you turn off the squelch. Most of the time you can barely get any copy but sometimes, sometimes. Through trees and such yes a little power can help. But trees do a great job of attenuationing vhf/uhf signals. They do an even better job of blocking signals when wet. Also when you double the power you only net 3db worth of signal strength. In theory. The gain of the antenna also will affect what you perceive. The 3db antenna is probably better in hilly terrain. The 3db antenna is more like a sphere in radiation pattern. Where the 6db it is more akin to a platter. That is why you have higher gain. You don't get something for nothing. With a yagi yet get 10-12 db in gain but it is highly direction like a pie wedge. Hope that helps a little. Antenna and radio theory are fun aren't they. That is why you need to experiment. All this is why in Lone Survivor Murph gave his life to try and get as high and as clear as he could. He probably knew he was going to silhouette his entire body to every living thing for miles. In an attempt to get help. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Again. Will probably do nothing but a be a big fireball in a direct hit. Partial, I imagine a near field hit you are still going to see damage. I worked at Ft drum doing telephony work as an apprentice. My boss was showing me near field damage. In one of the command offices in the old part of base. There had been a near field hit to one of the trunked lines. The patch panel had these carbon fuse blocks. He showed me where some of the fuses blew from a lightning strike some 60 feet from the line it rode. It went through the line, vaporized the carbon block. Shooting fragments 30 feet across the room through the otherside of the cinderblock building into a dumpster 30 yard away. The ground rods didn't look much better. He dragged me in there to tell me this. Showed me there were lines closer to the strike, but it chose to go somewhere else. So that if I heard lightning to run like hell. Whether or not I was in a CO or by the lines it is going to do what it wants to, you aren't going to stop it or change its mind. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

You mean a coax-less nmo? If so soldering iron and its accoutrements. Crimper(if crimping), soldering tools if soldering and cutters for the so239 side. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Most of the UHF/VHF verticals I have seen were DC grounded. I did see, I think they were Comets that had some that weren't. Funny enough you mention HF. Most of the near HF halos and squalos I saw weren't DC grounded. I got confirmation from one vendor. That their halo style antennas were not DC grounded. I always that having a DC grounded antenna was one way to defeat common mode interference, that vendor said by not having it DC grounded that is how they overcame common mode noise.

I know its a DC ground antenna as you get that typical "short Second, paragraph. https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/swr-issue-on-dc-grounded-antenna.379423/ some more information: DC Grounded Antennas - The Myth, The Legend, The Fantasy https://www.iceradioproducts.com/80.html

For crimping I bought a dx engineering crimping kit. Decent price. Comes with cutter and swappable crimp dies. So you can swap between rg58/lmr400. Definetly spend money on a good circle nmo cutter from laird or larsen. Definetly, a auto center punch (used a harbor freight one). Don't want to have a radio shop punch a hole and put a weather plug in till you can do the install. I used a Milwaukee steel circle cutting bit and a step drill bit. I am a mechanic by trade. Should have know better then to use what I had. Was it terrible job NO. Was I proud NO. Would I have been ok if it was a customers car fNO. Really wish I could recommend something in the middle between professional and I am gonna give it a try once grade of tools. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Is this antenna dc grounded design? Most commercial verticals are. It would show up as a short, please some one correct me if I am wrong. Plus, if it is a dc grounded antenna you may want to ground the mast. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Looks like the same power from a computer power supply. Maybe some one with one can answer. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk