Just passed my General class test on Saturday!!!!

[WRPL700]

Well, After studying my butt off for several weeks, I took the test Saturday for General class and passed (35 out of 35).  I do have to say thanks to the guy who gave me the link to hamexam.org where you can do flash cards of the questions, it really helped!!!  Now on to new bands... maybe I will try out 17 meters or 20 meters in the coming weeks.  

[SteveShannon]

20 minutes ago, WRPL700 said:

Well, After studying my butt off for several weeks, I took the test Saturday for General class and passed (35 out of 35).  I do have to say thanks to the guy who gave me the link to hamexam.org where you can do flash cards of the questions, it really helped!!!  Now on to new bands... maybe I will try out 17 meters or 20 meters in the coming weeks.  

Congratulations!  

[WSEZ864]

Congrats x 2!

[Lscott]

5 hours ago, WRPL700 said:

Well, After studying my butt off for several weeks, I took the test Saturday for General class and passed (35 out of 35).  I do have to say thanks to the guy who gave me the link to hamexam.org where you can do flash cards of the questions, it really helped!!!  Now on to new bands... maybe I will try out 17 meters or 20 meters in the coming weeks.  

You don’t need a fancy antenna for HF just to get on the bands. A lot of Hams just build simple horizontal dipoles. 

[WRUU653]

Congrats

[WRPL700]

Thanks guys.  Very much appreciated.

[WRPL700]

10 hours ago, Lscott said:

You don’t need a fancy antenna for HF just to get on the bands. A lot of Hams just build simple horizontal dipoles. 

That is for sure. I am all about home made as much as possible. Attached are a couple of pictures of my 10 meter antenna on a 30' pole.  Made from two 102" SS whips cut 2" inches shorter and attached to a Procomm DP4MFPL dipole mount.  I have been able to talk to guys in Italy and Germany, all with 20 watts out.  This is a great hobby.....

[Lscott]

Yup. Good enough!

[WRYZ926]

My first HF antenna as a new tech was a home made 10m dipole. I hung it as an inverted v and have worked stations all over the world with it. I still have that antenna up. It works well for 10m and 11mm/CB. Mine also has good/useable SWR for most of the 2m band. Too bad I don't have a 2m radio with SSB capabilities.

I mostly use my Icom IC-7300 for HF but I do find it fun to use my 20 watt Xiegu G90 on occasion. The farthest I have worked using the G90 and 10m dipole on SSB has been Ireland. It was hard getting through the pile up with only 20 watts but rewarding when I did make the contact.

[WRPL700]

5 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

My first HF antenna as a new tech was a home made 10m dipole. I hung it as an inverted v and have worked stations all over the world with it. I still have that antenna up. It works well for 10m and 11mm/CB. Mine also has good/useable SWR for most of the 2m band. Too bad I don't have a 2m radio with SSB capabilities.

I mostly use my Icom IC-7300 for HF but I do find it fun to use my 20 watt Xiegu G90 on occasion. The farthest I have worked using the G90 and 10m dipole on SSB has been Ireland. It was hard getting through the pile up with only 20 watts but rewarding when I did make the contact.

Yep, that is what I am using, a G90.  Great little radio.  Love the tuner.

[SteveShannon]

My first hf antenna was an End Fed Half Wave I built from a kit I bought from ARRL. Although it’s not as simple as a dipole it was just right for me nice because it had a low SWR for 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. I learned a ton from making it and tuning it.  Recently i added a loading coil at the end and another short length of wire to be able to work 75 meters.  I tuned it for 3910 kHz which is where the Montana Traffic Net meets daily. 

[WRYZ926]

The G90 has one of the best tuners I have used. It does better than my LDG auto tuner. The G90 is definitely a nice little radio.

I have built a 80m end fed half wave antenna but still need to get it installed and do final tuning. It tested good when I had it up temporarily on a 40 ft telescoping mast.

My last antenna project that I built was an ultra light weight EFHW antenna for Parks On The Air. The unun (without antenna wire) weighs 0.6 ounces and is rated for 25 watts digital and 40 watts AM//SSB modes. It will be a perfect little antenna to go with the G90.

Here are photos of it when I finished putting everything together.

[SteveShannon]

43 minutes ago, WRYZ926 said:

The G90 has one of the best tuners I have used. It does better than my LDG auto tuner. The G90 is definitely a nice little radio.

I have built a 80m end fed half wave antenna but still need to get it installed and do final tuning. It tested good when I had it up temporarily on a 40 ft telescoping mast.

My last antenna project that I built was an ultra light weight EFHW antenna for Parks On The Air. The unun (without antenna wire) weighs 0.6 ounces and is rated for 25 watts digital and 40 watts AM//SSB modes. It will be a perfect little antenna to go with the G90.

Here are photos of it when I finished putting everything together.

Very nice!

[WRUE951]

Welcome to the SAD HAM Club..  Extra is only half hour away..   

[FishinGary]

Nice work. Congratulations!

[WRPL700]

21 hours ago, WRYZ926 said:

The G90 has one of the best tuners I have used. It does better than my LDG auto tuner. The G90 is definitely a nice little radio.

I have built a 80m end fed half wave antenna but still need to get it installed and do final tuning. It tested good when I had it up temporarily on a 40 ft telescoping mast.

My last antenna project that I built was an ultra light weight EFHW antenna for Parks On The Air. The unun (without antenna wire) weighs 0.6 ounces and is rated for 25 watts digital and 40 watts AM//SSB modes. It will be a perfect little antenna to go with the G90.

Here are photos of it when I finished putting everything together.

That's pretty cool.  Is that a BNC connector?   This kind of tinkering is beyond my current ability or patience... 

[WRYZ926]

Yes that is a BNC connector. I used a digital microscope to see everything. And the toroids were not fun to wrap with arthritic hands. It's tough growing young at times.

I figured that I would show you that antenna toggle you ideas for light portable antennas you can make to use with the G90 if you decide to go portable with it.

[tweiss3]

For portable, I bought an unun on ebay (was $15, couldn't build one for that cost) and put it in a PVC box:

 

I then made a 40M long wire, and a 80M long wire, the 40M is in a chalk reel and the 80M is in a rope reel. The second chalk reel has paracord, the intent is to attach the chain link ring to the chosen wire, then toss the chalk reel in a tree, no need to deal with weights, and it keeps things from getting tangled.

I think I was out a total of $100 all said and done to have a decent field antenna set that packs away easily, and can be deployed in about 10 minutes.

[WRYS709]

Can you imagine the reaction if you go on a Ham Radio Forum and brag about getting your GMRS License!?!

[OffRoaderX]

34 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

Can you imagine the reaction if you go on a Ham Radio Forum and brag about getting your GMRS License!?!

OMG.. THAT is a great idea!

[WRPL700]

4 hours ago, tweiss3 said:

For portable, I bought an unun on ebay (was $15, couldn't build one for that cost) and put it in a PVC box:

 

I then made a 40M long wire, and a 80M long wire, the 40M is in a chalk reel and the 80M is in a rope reel. The second chalk reel has paracord, the intent is to attach the chain link ring to the chosen wire, then toss the chalk reel in a tree, no need to deal with weights, and it keeps things from getting tangled.

I think I was out a total of $100 all said and done to have a decent field antenna set that packs away easily, and can be deployed in about 10 minutes.

Very nice.  Since I am new at this..... these are end fed correct?

[WSEZ864]

5 minutes ago, OffRoaderX said:

OMG.. THAT is a great idea!

Telling our ham confederates that we got started in CB actually goes over smoother, because they can assume we grew out of it.

[tweiss3]

4 minutes ago, WRPL700 said:

Very nice.  Since I am new at this..... these are end fed correct?

Correct, its an end-fed half wave. The 40 does 10, 15, 20 & 40, but the 80 does 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 good enough for portable operations. I do have a tuner I can toss in the mix if I need a better match.

[WRPL700]

35 minutes ago, tweiss3 said:

Correct, its an end-fed half wave. The 40 does 10, 15, 20 & 40, but the 80 does 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 good enough for portable operations. I do have a tuner I can toss in the mix if I need a better match.

So, are end fed half waves directive broadside like center fed half waves?

[SteveShannon]

14 minutes ago, WRPL700 said:

So, are end fed half waves directive broadside like center fed half waves?

They can be. It depends on the frequency and the height above ground. EFHW are one of the most versatile antennas around.