Category Archives: Antennas

40m with the Buddipole Extended Whip Arms

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I set about setting up my Buddipole in a 40M (7Mhz) configuration. For this i added 2 new extended whip arms to my collection of Buddipole parts. The majority of my Buddipole parts come from Radioworld, who I really dont mind promoting in my blog as they are very quick on delivery.

To start with I used the “Buddipole in the field’ setup recommendations, which helped get the physical setup. Of what to plug in where, as I’m still learning it really helps having a printed A4 page with the diagrams on, and I stuff that in my pocket or my external table as I work along.

It took me about 15~20 minutes to get the pole and the whips setup at ground level. The whips are really long at 9ft which is what you’ll need for 40M and they must be fully extended. Take your time pulling them out from the tips and firmly, but gently extending them.

aobe roof level and secure

Now I dont mind saying I have already lost two smaller (5ft) whips with messing up guying and the Buddipole nearly falling on me, so if you are reading this, please, please take your time with guying/rigging your buddipole up. Mine moves around my backgarden, so i dont have a static mount point, I could use Pythagorus equations to work out the technical lenght, but I find that rasing the antenna, checking the tensions and taking it back down and then up as required is the safest. When I’m indoors and it starts getting windy, i want to know that its not going to fall !

Anyhow after guying and getting to an ok height (above the roof line) I started on tuning the S.W.R. inital results were a little disappointing, as I expected some loss on rising, but it got a bit high. So I brought the dipole down again and spent more time on the coils.

hmm, not bad, but not what i was after

Getting the coils setup was a real exercise in patience – having not done this for a specific frequency before, it took a few good attempts of going from left to right coil to get the nice curve I got below.

The S.W.R. on the lower frequencies is a bit high, but as I’m not going to be attempting morse (yet), thats not a concern to me.

Improved SWR on 40m

I was quick to take some photos of the coils to log where I had put them, maybe next time i can get a better improvement, but this is where I had them this time.

Black coil – almost right to the very end (versatee to the right, whip to the left in this pic)
Whip to the left, versatee to the right in this pic.

I got in and even tho it was getting later and the sun going down had a great time tuning in and listening on 40m. It was very busy on the voice frequencys and finding a gap to transmit and knowing I was ‘spilling’ over to others was a bit nerve racking.

I did try putting a CQ out, but no response, but the SWR reading on the radio was very good, even tho i am only using 10W.

So next time I will show more about the CAT and digital interface I now have, but thats another post 🙂

All the best and 73’s from M7ALU

Wet and Windy – but some action on 40m!

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tuned into 40M

So the bad weather continues in the UK, i had wanted to carry on with my 2m/70cm antenna project but with the gales, it didnt seem like a sensible thing to be doing, esp as the mast is tall and heavy – even with a light breeze, it could be dangerous.

Instead I looked thru the Buddipole in the field document and reviewed the 40M section. It said it was possible, albeit with a slightly higher SWR.

its 40m but at about 2m in height…

So with the bad weather I got the buddipole setup, not wanting to lose any more antenna, I kept the height at about 2m verticle and guyed down the mast as usual and also thru the veresatee to give some extra support on the horizontal element of the dipoloe. This worked really well as the winds did pick up and mast held up well in the eright location.

I was only able to get my SWR down to 5, probably due to the height of the antenna, but amazingly I was able to receive ! Given I’ve not had alot of action on the Kenwood I was so happy to tune in and listen in. Some points I could get both ends of the conversation, others just the transmitter, but nevertheless, i found it a worth while excersie in setting up the antenna in inclement conditions and also being to use the Kenwood on HF.

Do some more investigation, one other configuration I could try is a ‘NVIS’ on 40m. This is well documented here and as I’m short one wire and the clearance mounts will probably do it another day (having just got over a bad cold, dont want to risk getting ill again !)

So for now here is a video of one of the many stations I could pick up on 40m. It was great, and amazing to see how the sun going down quickly effected the transmisions ! (80m is popular after sun).

2m/70cm antenna – on a flag pole

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To free up the buddipole for HF, I wanted a 2M antenna for the ICOM 2200-H I could use with ease. I investigated making a copper J-Pole, or Super J-Pole to be more precise, to increase the gain and range. Having worked out the costs, which after equipment, tools and consumables came to almost £100 !

With that I took to the internet to search for an alternative and found the MOONRAKER WTZ-270 J POLE ANTENNA for £37.98p (including shipping & VAT). So I already have the coax/connectors and a flag pole for hoisting it up on.

First job was to check the S.W.R. (I punctuate S.W.R where I can after I got caught saying SWR rather the short for acroynm – I’m not on 27Mhz here ;). I connected up my analyzer, and sure enough right in the 2M and 70cm a stunning reading of 1.3 SNR.

The flag pole has a decent plastic top, so I bolted the antenna to that, giving it isolation from the aliminum pole.

Now I quite forget how tall this flag pole was, but its a heck lot talller than my buddipole is, so I made sure that the weights were securing it. For the moment this was ok as I was supervising and it wasnt windy. I gave the mast a really good tug and with my weight it wasnt falling over anytime soon. The antennas weight with the bracket was very light, so no concerns there.

With that I headed in to my trusty Icom and started going around the local repeaters. I was not disappointed ! Immediatly stronger signals and clearer reception. A tried all the local repeaters and gateways, no problems there… So i thought, time to really test how far I could get on 10W, and tapped in the Southampton Repeater… amazingly it worked ! I got someone on /M and we could both make each other out, whilst not 5/9’s it was good enough and the furthest I had ever got on 2M and 10W – I think height and the antenna really done well.

So forecast for the weather in the UK this weekend is for high gales, and whilst I the mast & antenna are a good distance away from the public and buildings, i thought why risk it, and have taken it completely down tonight.

Good news is that will mean pictures for the next post, and maybe even a video – especially if I can reach Southampton again on 10W which is a good 30+ miles away and with some big hills between us.