There are a lot of YouTube videos showing different ways to support a fiberglass antenna pole, none of which seemed to meet my needs which are fairly basic: rapid deployment, lightweight and uncomplicated. So I devised my own method that I hope you will find interesting. Some hams pound a long piece of angle iron … Continue reading Simplest Way to Guy a Telescopic Fiberglass Antenna Pole
Author: John VA3KOT
Ham Radio & the Art of Bushcraft
Operating a radio in the great outdoors can be as simple as parking your vehicle, pulling a radio out of your pack, attaching an antenna to the top of the driver's window and keying up. I have done that myself in the depths of winter when it's too darn cold to really get outside and … Continue reading Ham Radio & the Art of Bushcraft
How to Use a Semi-Automatic Antenna Tuner
There are manual antenna tuners and there are automatic antenna tuners - but what is a semi-automatic antenna tuner? I'll explain in a moment, but first a bit of background. For years I have relied on resonant antennas for field portable radio operations. Why carry any kind of tuner around if you don't have to? … Continue reading How to Use a Semi-Automatic Antenna Tuner
A Surprise New Field Portable Antenna
My experiments to find a new antenna to use for field portable operations have been taking me in several directions. My neighbors must wonder what I am up to. Almost every day I have been out in my back yard erecting all kinds of strange wires strung up on tall poles or launched into trees … Continue reading A Surprise New Field Portable Antenna
Delta Loopy Ideas
It's Spring in Southern Ontario. Maybe. The weather in these parts is highly unpredictable. Temperatures have been above freezing during the daytime and the snow is almost gone. But maybe it'll be back. Who Knows? Whatever happens I have been taking advantage of the good weather for some antenna planning. Antenna planning to me means … Continue reading Delta Loopy Ideas
The Hidden Secret in CW’s PARIS Standard
Sending speed in Morse Code (CW) is measured in words per minute, but how long is a "word"? In the English language the simplest word is the indefinite article "A". A contender for the longest word may be the name of a village in Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. So the word PARIS has been chosen to … Continue reading The Hidden Secret in CW’s PARIS Standard
A Born Again Miracle Whip
About 20 years ago a Canadian company, based in Quebec, produced a compact QRP antenna called the Miracle Whip. It was a really good piece of engineering that relied on the principle that a short whip has capacitive reactance that can be cancelled by feeding it through an inductive reactance. Remember, resonance occurs when capacitive … Continue reading A Born Again Miracle Whip
Radio Man Won’t You Come and Fix my Radials?
My humble apologies to the former Canadian folk music band Tanglefoot who came from the general area I live in. I borrowed (and edited) one of their song titles for this post. Just when I thought I had the theory and practice of ground radials down pat, along comes another surprise. After several months of … Continue reading Radio Man Won’t You Come and Fix my Radials?
So, is the VP2E Antenna Directional Enough?
Another fine day in February in Southern Ontario saw me out on a beach on the southern shore of Georgian Bay testing my unbalanced version of the VP2E antenna. In the previous post I shared my observation, from EZNEC modeling and a trial POTA activation, that moving the support mast towards the feedpoint end of … Continue reading So, is the VP2E Antenna Directional Enough?
The VP2E – A Strange (But Proven) Antenna
As an avid POTA activator I was quite excited to come across a new-to-me wire antenna that is rapidly field deployable, fairly stealthy, directional and which has some gain. I would like to thank Germany-based SOTA operator Ed Durrant DD5LP, G8GLM, VK2JI for introducing me to the VP2E. As is my custom, I read Ed's … Continue reading The VP2E – A Strange (But Proven) Antenna