TNFrank Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 I honestly think the Antenna is the Key to all this stuff. You need a decent radio but if you don't have a good antenna it's all for nought. The little Inverted V is really working quite well and for the price that you can make one up for it's probably the best "bang for the buck" that you can get in a compact HOA Friendly antenna. SteveShannon and WRYZ926 2 Quote
SteveShannon Posted January 2 Posted January 2 30 minutes ago, TNFrank said: I honestly think the Antenna is the Key to all this stuff. You need a decent radio but if you don't have a good antenna it's all for nought. The little Inverted V is really working quite well and for the price that you can make one up for it's probably the best "bang for the buck" that you can get in a compact HOA Friendly antenna. That’s exactly right! WRYZ926 1 Quote
WRYZ926 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 @TNFrank I'm glad to see that the inverted v is working so much better now that you have it away from the house. And you are correct that a good antenna is important. An expensive radio with a poor antenna won't do as good as a cheaper radio with a good resonant antenna. I have proven this to guys in my club with my Xiegu G90. The G90 with a remnant antenna gets more contacts than someone running a 100 watt radio with a poor antenna that requires an external. I think everyone's first HF antenna should be a dipole the they make themselves. It teaches you a lot and the experience will help when you start making other types of antennas. A good DX antenna is a 1/4 wave ground mounted vertical. You can buy ones that come with a telescoping whip or you can make your own. The nice thing about a 10m ground mounted vertical is they are only about 8' 3" tall. Add at least 8 8 1/2 foot ground radials and it will get out well for those long distance contacts. A 10m ground mounted vertical made with wire is easy to hide from a HOA. I will suggest again for you to invest in a NanoVNA or antenna analyzer. They will make life so much easier when tuning antennas. This even goes for tuning mobile VHF/UHF/GMRS antennas that require tuning. SteveShannon and WRUU653 1 1 Quote
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