I didn’t have time to test the antenna before our cabin trip, so I took some measurements on-site. The antenna was strung between the upper deck of the cabin and a nearby tree. The wire I used was 63 feet long, I intended to cut it to length when the antenna was put up. What actually happened was I passed the end of the wire through a plastic dog bone insulator and wrapped it back on itself about a foot, and called it good. The SWR turned out to be so close to perfect, I didn’t make any adjustments. Here
Continue readingQRP Guys End Fed Half Wave Antenna – Part 2
I found some stranded, silver plated #22 wire that has Teflon insulation. It’s not copper-weld, but it’s tough stuff. I attached a 63 foot piece, and wrapped it around the PCB. According to the chart, the wire should be 61’6″, so I will have to trim the antenna for best SWR on site.
Continue readingQRP Guys No Tune End Fed Half Wave Antenna
Just finished building the kit. The instructions and illustrations were very good and easy to follow. Assembly took less than an hour. I will be using this antenna on our yearly cabin trip coming up in July 2019. I will do some testing before then and publish the results.
Continue readinguBitx – Part 4
Here is my completed uBitx. It worked perfectly the first time I applied power. Well, except I had the encoder wires backwards so the tuning was backwards, but I don’t count that. The microphone, keyer and external speaker jacks are on the front panel. I plan to make custom knobs (red of course) on the lathe when I get time. There is a custom made heat sink on the back. It connects to a custom made piece of thick aluminum on the inside of the case where the final transistors mount. This view show power and RF connections. You can
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