Cable Testing !

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So the weather was pretty fair today, no rain, light breeze. Having completed the cable the previous evening it was time to attach it !

40ft up, 2m Jpole with the Radioorld Guy kit used to keep it firmly to the ground with the heavyweight mast and mast support.

First, I fed the cable from in the ‘shack’ outside, brought the cable up the small step ladder, and lowered the mast. I then connected the PL259 into the moonraker 2m/70cm jpole. I returned inside and before attaching to the RT90, done a SWR check. The SWR had gone up to 3.0-4.0 ! Not the result i wanted, so i went back out and took both ends of the cable with me.

the mast is in this very strong base and held in with heavy duty tent pegs. There are links for chains available, but its secure as is.

Backup the stairs and with the base back down, I started measuring and checking the mast the connector. I found that that there was just a bit of solder on the tip that wasnt allowing the plug to fit snug. A quick file with a very small round file made the PL259 fit nice, but better than that, i changed ends, and measured outside first. In the bright sun it was hard to read the meter, but was getting back 1.6 – 1.7, not brilliant, but thought that was ok and good enough from transmitting. I also noted that with the extra length, some cable was on the ground, and that may effect the SWR reading from my nanoNVA.

SWR on 70cm is a little high, but still ok for operation – I dont have a ‘favourite’ repeater on 70cm, mostly there for UHF/VHF coverage in one unit.

I then made sure all the mast-stakes where still very much in the ground, these are huge, see https://www.radioworld.co.uk/complete-guy-kit-light-weight. I put them in the ground with a club hammer – for sure those stakes are not going to move, and the guy-rope is very well made, with metal hook attachements each end.

TIme to push a 40ft mast up ! I dont mind saying it was hard work – but then i am not in the best fitness at the moment !

S.W.R. on 2M on the frequenys used for the repeaters and simplex channels is <1.5 – a very good result

With the mast up, i returned indoors and took some SWR readings – on 2m i was getting good results, so i put it on the transceiver. I was now getting Southampton, Dorchester and Blandford as clear as bell on repeater tests – the effort was worth it for such a clear signal.

I done a test on the local Poole repeater and was glad to hear a well known specalist on who gave me a good signal report, so was very happy with that !

I’ve got more reviews to write on the mast and RT90 this week, but will try to get them out as its largely setup in terms of UHF/VHF frequencys and the antenna/mast configuration.

73’s for now, M7ALU