I’ve been thinking about a 2nd antenna since I’ve got a Flexradio with a lot of antenna ports and only one connected. I came across a receive only antenna called a Loop on Ground. It’s like a poor man’s beverage antenna as it is only 15’x15′ square. Matt Roberts KK5JY has a great write up on it at his website http://www.kk5jy.net/LoG/. I built it just like he did. Here’s how it looked installed, you can see the yellow tent stakes at the corners: The transformer box is in the bushes so I don’t run it over with the lawnmower. I used 14guage THHN wire and tacked it down with landscaping…

Since I moved I’ve had my WX satellite receiver antenna on the old tripod from the hexbeam and it was kind of in the way in the garden. A club member gave me a push up pole they weren’t using and I finally got the parts I needed to set it up. From the top down, 2m antenna, FlightAware ADS-B 1090MHz Antenna and the QFH weather satellite antenna. Previously I was using the QFH to receive the ADS-B signals. I like to look up the planes that fly over while I’m sitting in the garden. I would get a peak of 17 planes at a time typically, with a range…

Worked on the ground crew for install Dee’s new antenna. His antenna was damaged in the same storm that damaged the club tower. He had insurance on his so he got a replacement of the same antenna but the newer model. Quite a few club members attended and the install went very smoothly.

Worked on the ground crew to pull up Lisa’s new antenna. Had some issues with the mast and getting the rotor install but Mike worked through it and we got it up in the air.

I used the old tripod for the hexbeam to put the QFH weather antenna up on some military camo poles. It’s at about 12ft. I secured the tripod with some concrete garden blocks for now. I expected to get much cleaner images than when I had it in the attic at the old house but all I was getting was interference: I’m using a Raspberry Pi 4 as the collector and I have loaded OpenWebSDR on it so I tuned it to the 137.9MHz frequency that the satellites use and found that I was receiving a broadcast station on that frequency. I had purchased an FM radio block filter but…

I received my Zero Five 80m Ground Plane antenna today. It’s a 43ft vertical with 6 10ft radials at the bottom. I’ve installed it on a pole 9ft up so the radials clear my fruit trees. I’ve been playing around with it a little and it’s got great reception, I might have to do some work on the cabling to get the transmit to work a little better but I see I got to Japan with FT8 at +14db. Hearing lots of Japan stations on 17m. Here’s some pics: I “Called before you dig” and got a clear from all 5 utilities with buried stuff in my area. I think…

Took the antenna down today after the afternoon CWT. Made some DX CW contacts with Sweden and Croatia before shutting it down. Didn’t have any issue taking down the antenna or taking it apart. The hexbeam fit nicely in the box my hammock frame came in. It’s amazing how small it all packed up to. I left the tripod on the roof now, I’ll go back up a little later and fix the roof. I’m planning to use the OCF dipole on some camo poles until I decide on a tower setup at the new place. Be back on the air soon!