tcp2525

I've used a matching loop like what you find on the Cushcraft Ringo antennas with excellent results on every 5/8 wave I built. Extremely easy to build and tune.

Same here. I use mine as a base with the antenna on the side of my tower fed with Andrews Heliax and it does remarkable well. Best $99 I spent. Oh, mine only puts out 16 watts on 467 and the full 20 on 462, which is normal for this radio.

I'm partial to the ASP705K, which has good gain and really holds up well. I like the fiberglass radome as it protects the antenna from the elements unlike the folded dipoles on the 404/408. Both antennas are good, just how much money do you want to spend.

Your antenna isn't tuned for the VHF weather band and comes in better when you open up the ground, that's normal. As for your other problem, I'm not sure. I'd have to be there to go over it and see what's going on.

I didn't take your post as dissing Bird at all. I agree that ALL equipment has some degree of inaccuracies and accept that. Of course, one can meet a point of diminishing returns on any piece of test equipment. I don't need a $20K piece of equipment for doing what I am doing. Just saying the Bird is a great economical choice for the average hobbyist, especially considering the money I wasted on two Daiwa meters.

True, but but you get what you pay for. I have two Daiwa meters and they are pure crap. I always thought Daiwa was a great brand, but the wattmeter movement burned out on the 901 so I either have to find a replacement meter from a scrapped one or just throw it away. The 801 had a diode crap out, which was an easy fix and then I spent some time recalibrating it. All of these are known and documented problems. I'm sticking with Bird since they have been around since the 50s and kept a tried and true design.

Best to go with a Bird meter if you can find one at a good deal. Right now I got five of them.

Thanks. I did download EZNEC when he announced it was going to be free. I still have to learn the program and get comfortable before cutting any metal. It's going to be a great learning experience for sure.

Thanks for the excellent explanation. This project is something I never done before and I love experimenting. Sure, I could have used RG11 as I have a bunch of Belden cable, but I've done that so many times it's boring. My goal is to use the POTS philosophy and build a highly reliable and indestructible divider that will resist weather for decades. Now, if I had a machine shop or access to one I could custom build everything, but this would go against POTS and wouldn't help other readers duplicate my work should they want to make one. At the end of the day I gained a lot of knowledge, which is very important to me. Now I got to build two yagi antennas.

Stacking two yagi antennas that will eventually go on the tower.

Thanks. Here's the link to the page I used. https://www.qsl.net/dk7zb/Stacking/splitter.htm And here's the software. Software seems pretty good. http://www.hp.woodshot.com/

I've been making phasing harnesses throughout the years, but never a power divider. I figured I'd give it a shot. Did all my calculations to get to where I needed to be with the materials that are over the counter. Finding the right combination of outer and inner pipes is the biggest challenge. My target was the high end of the GMRS band so that's where I did my calculations. Of course UHF being extremely critical of measurements a few thousandth of an inch either way can be a PITA. Testing it on the NanoVNA yields just barely a 1.4:1 at 467.650 MHz and under 1.2:1 at 444.175 MHz, my most used frequencies. Now I know what to look out for and compensate should I decide to build another. Anyway, here's the finished product. Everything all soldered and watertight waiting on a coat of battleship gray epoxy paint. Everything soldered waiting for the final top cap after testing. Two 50 ohm terminators for testing. Center conductor (11mm Brass Tube 1mm wall thickness) ready for installation. The 12 gauge copper center conductor is left intentionally long and will be much short once installed. N-connector soldered on other end. Brass tube with 8-32 threaded brass nut with rounded corners pressed in prior to solder.

Nice job!! Sometime the easiest solution is the most elusive.

Some of the Birds have a Forward/Reflected chart that can be adhered to the back for SWR. Nothing on the back of mine.

Going by memory I think Array Solutions used to make the kit, but I could be wrong. Personally, I'm sticking with my trusty old 43P with a couple slugs as it is simple and doesn't have all that electronic crap in it. Nothing more satisfying than watching the needle move a thousandth of an inch when you're aligning.

Sounds like a keeper to me. You got a great "feel good" meter that is capable of boosting your ego as well as the watts. Perfect for the 11 meter enthusiasts.

There's no such thing as a good quality RG58 cable no matter how short it is. RG400 with N connectors at a minimum.

I'm a Linux user, Manjaro, and I do all my programming via Windows 10 in a VM. Works great and no need to waste time dicking around with WINE.

I use the NMO2/70B dual band antennas on all my vehicles, including both motorcycles without issue. They just work great. That's the only antenna I will only use.

I'm betting if you select another operating mode the radio won't be part 95 compliant, at least till you put it back.

Mr. Chung is the Minister of Commerce in the HungLo province of China. Some of the world's finest counterfeit merchandise and stolen intellectual property emanate from there. Nothing leaves there until it is approved by him. Products from there have a higher degree of quality.

Mr. Chung made these options to pass type acceptance regulations. Same radio different labels. I really like my DB20.

Phasing harnesses are easy to make. Plenty of info on the web that gives all the formulas that are needed. You just have to get good quality 75 ohm cable and know its velocity factor. DX Engineering has some decent RG-11 for this. I used it for several stacked antenna projects without issue.

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I wouldn't want to even think about putting a scratch on that car, even places that will never be seen. Oh, when I said "cowl" in the other post I may not have used the right term. I was referring to that black area between the hood and windshield where the wipers reside. It would be fairly close to where an AM/FM antenna would be on most cars. Whatever you do just take your time and enjoy.