Taking the plunge into Ham Radio

[SoupOrMan]

So much for Field Day here... Sangamon County is covered in thunderstorms. Plus the local club didn't do anything, citing COVID.

[randy]

Next year.

Is that the only group in your area doing field day? You may have to look at neighboring counties.

[SoupOrMan]

There's groups in a couple of counties around here, but it'd be nice to have something local. Some of the locals drove up to Galesburg to do something with the hams there, but nothing here. I don't think everyone is out of the lockdown mentality quite yet.

Once I figure out what size of plastic pipe I want to use, I'll add pictures of my various antenna stands. My first one is made out of a scrap piece of 1-1/4" PVC with some holes hogged out of it. The holes are in there so I can use some wire sign holders as supports. It's only about 7 feet long, so that's not quite as high as I'd like to raise the antenna. Then I remembered I had a camera tripod, so that can add more height. I think the next step is to attach a plastic pipe to the mounting block on the tripod. If I use a standard length of pipe with the tripod, I can get the antenna up to about 15 feet.

Which means I will need more coax cable, since I want enough length to be able to sit away from the antenna stand.

Eventually I will get a proper radio and not have to use my HT to do everything, but this is a start.

[Weetabix]

I've heard of using a pizza pan or refrigerator as a ground plane (or, per the article, capacitance hat), but not a cookie or coffee can.

I've done both the pizza pan and refrigerator with fine results. I was using a cheapie mag mount 2/70 antenna inside.

[SoupOrMan]

[ finally put my PVC pipe and camera tripod antenna mast together. I used some paracord attached to a hose clamp to act as guy lines for the whole mess.

The height didn't make much difference. I still can't hit a repeater 25 miles away.

I did get a nice data point towards making or buying a better portable antenna mast. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

attachment=0]IMG_20210711_171734473_HDR~3.jpg[/attachment]I

[randy]

If nothing else you have a good setup for portable operations.

I wonder what would happen if you attached lengths of stiff wire at an angle from the bottom of the coffee can to act as radials?

[Weetabix]

If nothing else you have a good setup for portable operations.

I wonder what would happen if you attached lengths of stiff wire at an angle from the bottom of the coffee can to act as radials?

I was kind of wondering that as well. As I understand it, ground planes need to be around the same size as the vertical or larger. Maybe some coat hangers soldered at 3 or 4 points and angled down just a bit?

Also, Soup - are you sure you have the PL tone and offset right for the repeater? I.E. can you hit it when you're close to it with your HT?

[SoupOrMan]

Randy: Adding radials to the bottom of the can might help even further. That might make it closer to one of those discone antennas. Fortunately for me, I have more coffee cans to use for experiments, and will likely have all I need until Hills Brothers and store brand coffees go plastic.

Weet: I have checked the tone and offset. They seem to shift depending on who I talk to and which website I check. The local club's page says one thing (and since it's their repeater, I would hope they know), the central IL linked repeaters page says another. It does seem like they don't always stay programmed in my HT, so I'll recheck them just in case. Automatic offset isn't necessarily so...

[SoupOrMan]

And I thought of something else: cutting the PVC pipe in half and adding a union of some sort so I can make the mast more compact. Good idea for portability? Bad idea for structural stability? Any advice is welcomed.

[randy]

The nice thing about antennas is that they are an easy and cheap way to experiment.

I'd go with what the club website says vs what a website that covers the state has. Those type of sites are often outdated and often rely on someone to contact them when they have bad info, but don't do any regular checking refreshing.

For the PVC pipe, if this is primarily going to be a portable antenna, then I don't see an issue as long as you keep any structural limitations in mind.

For a permanent install I'd keep my eye open for antenna mast sections (say someone getting rid of a TV antenna). Some folks have used EMT Conduit or chain-link fence rails for lightweight VHF antennas, but there seems to be a difference of opinion on that.

You might want to find out where the repeater is and take a Sunday drive over there sometime to ensure you can get in. At least eliminate tone issues vs distance.