Not happy

Last night’s inability to break the TX5S pileup on 80m was the last straw that broke the camels back. And a final moment of reckoning: my ground radial system suck.

However, the bush around the antenna base is so impenetrable that stretching more radials is simply impossible. The antenna is an inverted L for both 80m band and 160m band with twelve 40m long radials.

And here is the thing: every study on ground radial systems has shown that for the same total length of wire, having more short radials beats fewer long ones.

I had no choice but to erect another 80m only vertical at a location where there is plenty of space to setup a proper screen.

This is why there is no newsletter today: slashing the paddock took most of the day, and a one-man-antenna project detoured into two men fighting the midday sun.

And we are not even done yet!

Will I be able to tell the difference between a system containing 32 radials, each 20m long and 12 x 40m ? I really hope so!

I really don’t have a way of measuring how much juice goes up the wire, but running two WSPR transmitters set at 100mW into each antenna, simultaneously, should offer some answers.

It would be funny if the old antenna wins…

[ to be continued]