Insane antenna project #138742

Soooo, these tent poles were dirt cheap.

I drilled through two of them and put a wire across the lot. Now I need to create a coil for the bottom and somehow make everything solid & stable. After that it should become a very nice tunable antenna.

I'm ashamed to say this project haven't got any further since that day (almost 2.5 months later!). 

I have a problem with starting and finishing projects. Motivation is a problem.

Wittering Beach: Sand and Radios don't mix

So, Ms B, a friend of us and I jumped into the car and went to Wittering Beach.

We arrived at 11 just after the rains stopped. Setting up the antennas and the beach tent took a while but in the end we spent a very relaxing and joyful time. I wasn't very successful with the end-fed and FT-818 and sand got everywhere but I truly managed to let go under the shade of the tent and relax. I wasn't stressed when something didn't work and I wasn't annoyed with anyone. Just me, Ms B and the sea. Perfect. 

The Radio Sheep is scouting for some 6m contacts.

Yo-Yo antenna build time

Parts arrived, antenna built. I was hoping to use this the next day but it had to wait for a couple of weeks before I could actually try it.

Before...

and after.

 

Brecon Beacons walk

Today I might have destroyed my feet, but it was a nice day out.

Ms. B and I went for a long walk, 14km, 8h walk up the Brecon mountains on very rocky paths.

I had a massive 10kg+ backpack with all radio equipment, water and food. It was one of the hottest days of the year, literally in the middle of a heath wave.

I love this view

I also had brand new walking boots which literally destroyed my feet. After 7w they're still just healing and as I walk it hurts very badly. 

Another sheep wants to become a Radio Sheep, very interested in our equipment.

We set up for picnic at 1 after 3h of climbing and walking. We played with the radio for an hour, made some 6m FT8 work, I yelled for CQ on 2m FM but didn't hear anyone replying although I could hear the occasional contact someone else was making.

As we walked around the mountain ridge then we realised how long our path is. As we came down I realised we weren't anywhere near the end of the path but at the middle yet, and we had run out of water, overheating and my feet were already destroyed.

Finally we managed to come back and slept through the next day. 

70cm SSB activity

Ms. B and I, along with our Radio Sheep, took the old ex-mil pole and ZL special 70cm up the hill and set it up for the SSB contest.  This was quite a success for the antenna, we could hear really distant stations but our mic cable developed a fault and would only transmit voice intermittently. The cable was a short and portable Cat-5 network cable so that was annoying but not the end of the world, I have plenty of replacements.

The Radio Sheep was very happy.

Day off - random wire test

Cloudy but what a beautiful day!

I had the day off but Ms B was working so I went up the hill again with the equipment, spent most of the day tinkering and relaxing. It was a beautiful day. 

Way too much equipment to carry around. I didn't learn my lesson.

So I had two poles, the satellite hand-held-yagi, two pairs of wire antennas (end fed & random), one slim-jim for the 6m, coffee, water, two ATUs and other assorted equipment that might be useful.

This was also the first time I used my MFJ random wire tuner (almost after 15y!) and our latest random wire antenna. It worked flawlessly. I could make contacts in 40 and 20, and hear plenty on the rest of the bands. The wire is measured to be usable in all bands 40m up. This was beyond my expectations.

Finally I did some FT8 work on 6m, strong SSB signals received too.

A ladder to the heavens

The antenna was definitely working and there was a 6m opening, I could be heard from South Europe loud and clear.

So after this packed up and went back home.

CB radio?

 Picked up a CB base station from 80s from another amateur from our town.

This thing is HUGE. Shame it's only 4W and FM only.

I've heard some people on it very faintly but the 11m antenna is almost resonant on 10 after some changes and that made a very good monitoring station on the OpenWebRX with an RTL SDR dongle.