1 MAR 97
Matt askes about a dipole and feeder for camping etc.
IMHO -- don't fiddle around. Just cut a decent resonant dipole of
insulated wire, a lightweight center piece for holding the coax and
wire together. Forget the tuner.
Insulated wire -- it does not fray and is easy to find in any
electric supply or place that sells zip cord (I like blue myself, 12
GA as used in conduits)
Resonant -- this is where its at! any place else, it's not.
QRP Frequencies are a small segment of the band. Spend the time
to tune the dipole.
No connectors - at the dipole feed point just extra weight no purpose.
COAX -- at 30 & 40 meters the loss is not a factor unless you are
feeding the dipole on the top of some climax tropical jungle at 60
meters! Just get some decent small diameter COAX. Ladder needs all
sorts of baluns or a tuner (forget 'em).
Forget the tuner -- on 30 or 40 we usually are in such a small
segment that it is not worth the carrying weight.
BTW -- Forget end insulators. Just fold back and twist the ends
of the dipole (part of the tuning process anyway) and wrap the
twisted loop with some tape (keeps the end from snagging), then use
cord through the loop to hoist the ends. (If arching you see, then
'you ain't QRP'!)
30 & 40 meter Op? Then bring along two tails to hang from the ends
of the 30 meter dipole and use an alligator clip -- shame to remove
that nice sky blue insulation but...
GO FOR RESONANCE! KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Kris
OA4DBO
[
QRP-L Archive |
]
[
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000
]