My next mission was to get the 40m band working. This is a very popular band and has so much on it, CW, Data Modes, Voice, so being able to receive and send is my objective on HF this frequency.

The previous SWR readings gave me confidence that the cable wasnt that far out, and for sure, it only need 6cm adding, so as I had measured I set about adding 6 cm of cable.

After taking down, re-erecting I am pleased with the SWR report from the NanoVNA (i done the recalibration just to make sure !)

It really was worth the effort to get such a great reading – my buddipole setup could get down low, usually around 1.7~2.5 reading, good but not as good as this !

I hooked up the mast to the Kenwood and the amount and strength of signals was staggering (at approx 17:15 BST) – as I understand it 40m is a ‘daytime’ frequency for its best performance.

With my battle for low SWR being slowly won, I now have to listen, and listen alot to operators to see how they communicate. I cant wait for my first QSO, but know this will be harder than my 2m setup !

I have two more wires to go, but with 40m and 30m (the longest wires) I’m confident I can get the other frequenices all finely tuned before the week is out !

Until then 73;s

M7ALU