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Re: CQ RTTY WPX Contest this Weekend!

George N2APB
 

We activated KN4DUA with a big Team effort this weekend and recorded the BIGGEST score of our recorded history!  All the practice in the events leading up to this point are sure paying off, with team members this time including David KF4DKW, Mike KK6OKU, Brad KM4OJK, Sam KV4XY, Randy WK9M and Juan AC6ZM racking up the sweet score.  Full details and photos coming soon ... including those about the portabella mushroom & cheese steakburgers on the grill. 

But for now just click on the two photos on our website and start droolin'.  (Those who participate are learning that partying, eating and drinking are wonderful side benefits of on-the-air activities with TLARC :)

Great going Team TLARC!

73, George N2APB

TLARC Home Page ... http://www.tlarc.org/
Re: February meeting is coming up

Jim Jenkins
 

Wanda And I will bring a bottle of white wine for those who prefer wine.

Regards,

Jim

AA1J

 

From: TLARC@groups.io <TLARC@groups.io> On Behalf Of Brad (the Voice of the Village) Berger
Sent: Thursday, February 7, 2019 4:36 PM
To: TLARC@groups.io
Subject: Re: [TLARC] February meeting is coming up

 

We need volunteers to sign-up to bring Margaritas for the club to enjoy at Lorenzo's. I brought them last time. Remember the old saying: You can't have too much!

Ole'

Re: February meeting is coming up

Mikeljay
 

 

David,

 

Karen and I plan on attending dinner as well. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

 

Best regards,

Mike

K4MJF

 

 

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--
73,
Michael J. Foley, K4MJF
865-567-1859
Tellico Lake Amateur Radio Club
470 ARG
Re: February meeting is coming up

Jim Jenkins
 

David,

Wanda and I plan on attending the dinner.

All the Best,

Jim

AA1J

 

From: TLARC@groups.io <TLARC@groups.io> On Behalf Of David Andrews
Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 4:19 PM
To: TLARC@groups.io
Subject: [TLARC] February meeting is coming up

 

The TLARC meeting for February is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Wednesday evening, February 20th at 7:00 at the Tellico Village Recreation Center. This will be preceded by a dinner at the Lorenzo’s at 5:30. Please email me If you are interested in having dinner, as I’ll need to provide a headcount for dinner.

 

The program for the evening will be a recap of HamCation 2019, which will be held this weekend in Orlando, Florida. Yours truly, N1ESK will be attending for the second year running. Orlando in February – what’s not to love?

 

See you on the 20th,

 

David Andrews, N1ESK, newly drafted TLARC Secretary

 
CQ RTTY WPX Contest this Weekend!

George N2APB
 

Once again, we'll be activating KN4DUA club call (and individual team member calls to combine with the club reporting) for the CQ RTTY WPX Contest, starting at 4pm local time on Saturday and going through to sunrise Sunday morning. 

Come join us at the QTH of Juan AC6ZM to make at least 5 (easy) Q's to get on our "team roster", or watch and cheer us on.  We'll help you make the contacts and cheer you on too!  Just RSVP with AC6ZM and/or give a shout on the club repeater on your way over. 

Hope to see you there with us!

73, George N2APB

TLARC Home Page ... http://www.tlarc.org/
Re: February meeting is coming up

Brent Martin
 

I’ll bring a bottle. Brent


On Feb 7, 2019, at 4:36 PM, Brad (the Voice of the Village) Berger <km4ojk@...> wrote:

We need volunteers to sign-up to bring Margaritas for the club to enjoy at Lorenzo's. I brought them last time. Remember the old saying: You can't have too much!

Ole'

Re: February meeting is coming up

Brad (the Voice of the Village) Berger
 

We need volunteers to sign-up to bring Margaritas for the club to enjoy at Lorenzo's. I brought them last time. Remember the old saying: You can't have too much!

Ole'
Re: February meeting is coming up

WK9M
 

Feb 20th looks good for Lorenzo's.

Thanks,
Randy
WK9M

On 2/5/2019 4:19 PM, David Andrews wrote:

The TLARC meeting for February is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Wednesday evening, February 20th at 7:00 at the Tellico Village Recreation Center. This will be preceded by a dinner at the Lorenzo’s at 5:30. Please email me If you are interested in having dinner, as I’ll need to provide a headcount for dinner.

 

The program for the evening will be a recap of HamCation 2019, which will be held this weekend in Orlando, Florida. Yours truly, N1ESK will be attending for the second year running. Orlando in February – what’s not to love?

 

See you on the 20th,

 

David Andrews, N1ESK, newly drafted TLARC Secretary

 
Re: February meeting is coming up

George Sifnotis
 

David  my wife and I will we coming for dinner. George


On Feb 5, 2019, at 9:11 PM, Brent Martin <brent6851@...> wrote:

David: I’ll be at the dinner. Thanks,Brent 


On Feb 5, 2019, at 4:19 PM, David Andrews <n1esk1@...> wrote:

The TLARC meeting for February is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Wednesday evening, February 20th at 7:00 at the Tellico Village Recreation Center. This will be preceded by a dinner at the Lorenzo’s at 5:30. Please email me If you are interested in having dinner, as I’ll need to provide a headcount for dinner.

 

The program for the evening will be a recap of HamCation 2019, which will be held this weekend in Orlando, Florida. Yours truly, N1ESK will be attending for the second year running. Orlando in February – what’s not to love?

 

See you on the 20th,

 

David Andrews, N1ESK, newly drafted TLARC Secretary

 
Re: February meeting is coming up

Brent Martin
 

David: I’ll be at the dinner. Thanks,Brent 


On Feb 5, 2019, at 4:19 PM, David Andrews <n1esk1@...> wrote:

The TLARC meeting for February is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Wednesday evening, February 20th at 7:00 at the Tellico Village Recreation Center. This will be preceded by a dinner at the Lorenzo’s at 5:30. Please email me If you are interested in having dinner, as I’ll need to provide a headcount for dinner.

 

The program for the evening will be a recap of HamCation 2019, which will be held this weekend in Orlando, Florida. Yours truly, N1ESK will be attending for the second year running. Orlando in February – what’s not to love?

 

See you on the 20th,

 

David Andrews, N1ESK, newly drafted TLARC Secretary

 
February meeting is coming up

David Andrews
 

The TLARC meeting for February is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Wednesday evening, February 20th at 7:00 at the Tellico Village Recreation Center. This will be preceded by a dinner at the Lorenzo’s at 5:30. Please email me If you are interested in having dinner, as I’ll need to provide a headcount for dinner.

 

The program for the evening will be a recap of HamCation 2019, which will be held this weekend in Orlando, Florida. Yours truly, N1ESK will be attending for the second year running. Orlando in February – what’s not to love?

 

See you on the 20th,

 

David Andrews, N1ESK, newly drafted TLARC Secretary

 
Re: The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

Jim Jenkins
 

I’m for the Gap Titan…great performance with a counterpoise and no radials.

JJAA1J

 

From: TLARC@groups.io <TLARC@groups.io> On Behalf Of George Sifnotis via Groups.Io
Sent: Monday, February 4, 2019 1:10 PM
To: TLARC@groups.io
Subject: Re: [TLARC] The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

 

I had gotten my decision for a vertical down to 3 

Butternut

Gap titan

And

Cushcraft r8. 

Listening to all here it seems like my first choice of the butternut is the better of the ways

 

What are thoughts 


On Feb 4, 2019, at 12:17 PM, John Haskell via Groups.Io <jasm2213@...> wrote:

Agree with APB, too.

I would not ever recommend a vertical unless the antenna has an extensive set of radials.   Even in the village there is plenty of room in the vast majority of yards for an outside random length OCD.

Re: The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

George N2APB
 

Well George, I've had a decade of great service *each* from the Gap Titan and the 5-band Butternut.

My first love was the Gap Titan (with no ground radials) ... I wrote a full perspective on my old club's webpage back in 1999 ... http://www.njqrp.club/data/gap.html

My second love was the Butternut, for the next decade, with about 64 ground radials laid out on the grass and quickly pulled down by nature so I could mow the lawn).  Wonderful bandwidth and I loved the coil at the bottom connecting the antenna to DC ground ... low static and protection for the rig.  I chronicled the installation and successful use of the Butternut on my "Chat With The Designers" webpage at https://www.cwtd.org/Apr17.html.  Check out the podcast of that episode, as we talked about "verticals, Butternut, and stuff" for about 45 minutes.

Can't say anything nice about the Cushcraft R7 (as you now), and I assume they just added another band for the R8 ... so 'nuff said.

So all things considered, I'd first recommend going with the Butternut or Hustler 6BTV (my current antenna here, for low-profile) and put in a *great* ground radial system.  Nothing beats good physics.

But if you want a quicker and simpler antenna installation and can tolerate the 4' on-a-side capacitive skirt, the GAP would do a great job for you.  (You can also put that on a tilt-over base mount to keep it less noticeable, but the need to disconnect/reconnect that cap skirt would be a pain.  Did that for 10 years and eventually just left it up nearly all the time.)

Hope this helps.  And definitely check out the resource links I gave above!

73, George N2APB

PS:  I'll be glad to give a hand when it comes time to install your new antenna system.
PPS: FWIW, I find DX Engineering to be a good source for just about everything I needed in antennas & feedline. 

  
 
Re: The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

George Sifnotis
 

I had gotten my decision for a vertical down to 3 
Butternut
Gap titan
And
Cushcraft r8. 
Listening to all here it seems like my first choice of the butternut is the better of the ways

What are thoughts 


On Feb 4, 2019, at 12:17 PM, John Haskell via Groups.Io <jasm2213@...> wrote:

Agree with APB, too.

I would not ever recommend a vertical unless the antenna has an extensive set of radials.   Even in the village there is plenty of room in the vast majority of yards for an outside random length OCD.

Re: The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

John Haskell <jasm2213@...>
 

Agree with APB, too.

I would not ever recommend a vertical unless the antenna has an extensive set of radials.   Even in the village there is plenty of room in the vast majority of yards for an outside random length OCD.
Stealth Antennas ... for TLARC members

George N2APB
 

Hey all,
With the growing interest we've been seeing in "Stealth Antennas", we've started a new section for our website, exploring and discussing "stealthy ways" for TLARC members to get on the bands in HOA-sensitive communities. 

The most recent addition is the Bird Feeder Vertical, contributed by Mike KM4H who recalled the presentation a fellow from the Village did for the ARES group some years back.  Mike says, "The author (Dennis Russell, K9VFU) did a very nice job camouflaging his vertical – you may note that he even glued bird seed to the glass panels to make it look like there was feed inside.  He seemed to do pretty well with it as the logs attached to his program indicate. Maybe this will give some others some useful ideas."  Thanks for the info Mike!

For now just click on the desired antenna type pictured on our TLARC home page to learn more about that one.  Soon, we'll have a dedicated Stealth Antennas page full of additional tried-and-true antennas, references and guidance to enable us all to be on the air from 160m-70cm!

73, George N2APB
TLARC ... http://www.tlarc.org/

PS: Remember the old commercial jingle from back in the 60s? ... "It's Slinky, it's Slinky, the favorite for girls and boys"  This is a hint for the next Stealth Antenna to be explored ;-)

 
Re: The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

Jim Jenkins
 

I’m with George on this one .

Jim

AA1J

 

From: TLARC@groups.io <TLARC@groups.io> On Behalf Of George N2APB
Sent: Sunday, February 3, 2019 9:27 PM
To: TLARC@groups.io
Subject: Re: [TLARC] The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

 

Hi Brad,
Sorry to hear that you got a Cushcraft R7.  It's known as an "air-cooled dummy load" by antenna aficionados because it's a bit shorter than others (maybe 25' or so?)  Unlike most verticals, this one is an end-fed half-wave antenna (EFHWA) that uses a crazy impedance matching network at the hi-z feedpoint to achieve "all band" operation.  Per our discussion, it doesn't require any radials, but it has four 49" rods that decouple the antenna from ground.

The R7 is known for having small bandwidth on 40 and 20, so adjustment to one's favorite place on those bands is important during setup.  Further, it's important to keep your SWR below 3:1 when running higher power (say 300W and up) because the antennas traps (tuned circuits) are susceptible to damage.

Now, as for your question of mounting it horizontally in your attic ... don't.  Half of your radiated power will be going straight up (NVIS on 40 and 80), and the other half will be going down into the house, modulating your electrical wiring, moving your garage door up and down, and likely picking up lots of E-field interference from your power lines in general.  Mounting a "vertical horizontally" (I love the juxtaposition here!) would likely be okay outdoors up in the trees at a good height, like most EFHWAs are.  Plus real EHHWAs would be longer, thus making it more efficient.

I don't mean to be so pessimistic, but just wanted to save you the effort.  Mount it in your backyard on a tilt-over post to make it less obtrusive (and noticeable) when you'e not using it.

73, George N2APB
www.tlarc.org 

 
Re: The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

George N2APB
 

Hi Brad,
Sorry to hear that you got a Cushcraft R7.  It's known as an "air-cooled dummy load" by antenna aficionados because it's a bit shorter than others (maybe 25' or so?)  Unlike most verticals, this one is an end-fed half-wave antenna (EFHWA) that uses a crazy impedance matching network at the hi-z feedpoint to achieve "all band" operation.  Per our discussion, it doesn't require any radials, but it has four 49" rods that decouple the antenna from ground.

The R7 is known for having small bandwidth on 40 and 20, so adjustment to one's favorite place on those bands is important during setup.  Further, it's important to keep your SWR below 3:1 when running higher power (say 300W and up) because the antennas traps (tuned circuits) are susceptible to damage.

Now, as for your question of mounting it horizontally in your attic ... don't.  Half of your radiated power will be going straight up (NVIS on 40 and 80), and the other half will be going down into the house, modulating your electrical wiring, moving your garage door up and down, and likely picking up lots of E-field interference from your power lines in general.  Mounting a "vertical horizontally" (I love the juxtaposition here!) would likely be okay outdoors up in the trees at a good height, like most EFHWAs are.  Plus real EHHWAs would be longer, thus making it more efficient.

I don't mean to be so pessimistic, but just wanted to save you the effort.  Mount it in your backyard on a tilt-over post to make it less obtrusive (and noticeable) when you'e not using it.

73, George N2APB
www.tlarc.org 

 
Re: KN4DUA activation TODAY for FBYO Winter QRP Contest! (2-Feb)

George N2APB
 

Brief wrap-up ... It was indeed a great afternoon and the bands were alive with the MN State QP, FISTS, FOC, and other activities ... but it was still a struggle working them with only 5 watts.  The Joy of QRP!

That said, I was able to make enough contacts and point to (hopefully) get a certificate for KN4DUA operation in this fun event!  See some pics on the TLARC home page.

73, George N2APB
Home page for TLARC ... http://www.tlarc.org/

 
Re: The Broadband Butterfly ... an HOA-friendly all-HF antenna for your attic

Brad (the Voice of the Village) Berger
 

Jim and George,

Recently I became the owner of a used Cushcraft R7 antenna. It sounds like it is similar to the 1/2 wave dipoles w/o radials you're discussing. Where does the R7 fit into the food chain of antenna performance? I may be using it with a Yaesu FT-990 I also recently acquired.

The seller said it is the world's greatest antenna and it's what NASA uses to talk to astronauts walking on Mars.

OJK
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