sdarc@groups.io | Messages

Re: Random Length EFLW - Balun availability

Simon (G4WQG)

#238

I would be interested in this too.. Add me to the list Tony

Simon L S Harris

G4WQG

Re: Random Length EFLW - Balun availability

Marc (M0KYB)

#237

Yes well done Tony, I noticed on his website that SDARC had purchased a quantity. If it's the 400W version I'll have one please Tony if that's alright?

Thanks

Marc
M0KYB

Re: Random Length EFLW - Balun availability

Tony (G4LDL)

#236

Those who are interested in obtaining one of the BALUNS mentioned, don't worry if you can't get one as there will be a few available shortly via SDARC (more correctly from me!).

Re: Random Length EFLW

John Claridge 2E0JJC

#235

Hi Dom

Thanks for the link.

I want one for tinkering with some experimental projects I have in mind.

I had been thinking of making my own but, although not difficult to make, "thinking" was a far as it got. About three weeks ago I watched the W&S video you referred to which reminded me that I still had not made one.

I have just ordered the one you mentioned so it just remains for me to try hard and remember the projects I wanted it for...it is an age thing😀

73

John. 2E0JJC

Show quoted text

On Mon, 17 Jan 2022, 1:05 am Dom (2E0WHQ), <domwilko@...> wrote:

John, if you are looking to buy a 49:1 UNUN, rather than make your own, then have a look at these on eBay. They are made by G4ICD and are extremely good quality. He's shutting down his commercial business, due to retirement, so he's chucking in a few freebies with every sale and it will work out cheaper than the LDG 49:1. They also use a genuine Amidon FT240-43 toroid ferrite. If you don't have the bits to make a Balun (UNUN), then by the time you have bought them (SO239, laminated wire, toroid ferrite, box, capacitor, etc.) it would probably be worth spending the £34 (including delivery) on one of these.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234379898203

Re: Random Length EFLW

Simon (G4WQG)

#234

I am just going to connect the 25.5M wire to the Tuner and see what happens..

The reviews of the tuner say it will tune a “wet bit of string”.. We will see…

Mind you if I can get something resonant on top band that would be nice.. as my MFJ949 will not tune the Fan on 1.8, to the point that I can hear arcing and smell burning from it😳

Simon L S Harris

G4WQG

Re: Random Length EFLW

Dom - 2E0WHQ

#233

John, if you are looking to buy a 49:1 UNUN, rather than make your own, then have a look at these on eBay. They are made by G4ICD and are extremely good quality. He's shutting down his commercial business, due to retirement, so he's chucking in a few freebies with every sale and it will work out cheaper than the LDG 49:1. They also use a genuine Amidon FT240-43 toroid ferrite. If you don't have the bits to make a Balun (UNUN), then by the time you have bought them (SO239, laminated wire, toroid ferrite, box, capacitor, etc.) it would probably be worth spending the £34 (including delivery) on one of these.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234379898203

Re: Random Length EFLW

John Claridge 2E0JJC

#232

Don't bother looking to buy a LDG 49:1 unun as shown in the video. I have being trying for some time. Everyone is out of stock...probably due to this video. 😀

Show quoted text

On Sun, 16 Jan 2022, 11:19 pm Dom (2E0WHQ), <domwilko@...> wrote:

Peter Waters, G3OJV does a nice little presentation on a 49:1 UNUN (Balun) and how to use it for a resonant EFLW. He also has some great wise words about naysayers and theorists; experimentation is everything!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcuHTWWOg7c

Peter Waters, G3OJV does a nice presentation on a 9:1 UNUN (Balun) and how to use it for a random length EFLW. He gives a good explanation about how 'random length' wires work, as well as mentioning the table I posted above. Well worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpGzBPtkxRg

Great, simple explanations in both, which some may find useful.

Dom, 2E0WHQ

Re: Random Length EFLW

Dom - 2E0WHQ

#231

Peter Waters, G3OJV does a nice little presentation on a 49:1 UNUN (Balun) and how to use it for a resonant EFLW. He also has some great wise words about naysayers and theorists; experimentation is everything!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcuHTWWOg7c

Peter Waters, G3OJV does a nice presentation on a 9:1 UNUN (Balun) and how to use it for a random length EFLW. He gives a good explanation about how 'random length' wires work, as well as mentioning the table I posted above. Well worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpGzBPtkxRg

Great, simple explanations in both, which some may find useful.

Dom, 2E0WHQ

Re: Random Length EFLW

Dom - 2E0WHQ

#230

Thanks Simon.

Are you going to feed it with a Balun or directly in to the ATU?
I suspect that a multiband fan dipole will give better performance seeing as all the elements are resonant, but like you say, it will be interesting to see the comparison.

Dom

Re: RSGB 144Mhz FMAC Results Are In #contest

Marc (M0KYB)

#229

Thanks Dom. That is fantastic news, well done everyone. I must admit, that result is much better than I was expecting. I didn't think we would be that close to Hereford and, given James' chart showing their performance declined steadily during the year, I think we can definitely beat them if we maintain a strong showing all year.

Re: Random Length EFLW

Simon (G4WQG)

#228

This is a good conversation starter Dom👍🏻

As I am just about to install a 25M EFLW with an Alinco EDX-2 remote ATU..

It will be interesting to compare that against my Multiband Fan dipole..

Random Length EFLW

Dom - 2E0WHQ

#227

A lot of us suffer with limited space to put up antennas. One of the simplest antennas is an end-fed long wire. If you want a EFLW to have the capabilities to tune across multiple bands, using an ATU, then it's good to chose a 'random' length of wire, as long as it isn't a 1/2 wave on any of the bands which you wish to operate on. There are various articles about this, which you can find on the Internet, but probably the best know on is by Jack, VE3EED (SK). I'll post a link to his article below.

The result of Jack's investigations were that if you wanted to use a 'random' length EFLW antenna, then there were plenty of lengths which you should avoid and by doing the maths, he was able to come up with a list of favourable lengths which should be used and will hopefully give you the ability to tune across multiple bands with an EFLW. I've posted a list of the favourable lengths below. Of course any non-resonate antenna is going to be a compromise, but if you have limited space, then you might like to see if you can squeeze in one of these lengths of wire for an EFLW?

From looking at the chart, I'm going to see if I can play around with the length of my sloping, inverted L, EFLW to see if it will tune better on some of the other bands. It seems to currently be resonant at 3.580Mhz, which is great for 80m, but it's not too keen on tuning on much else.

At the end of the day, it's just a length of wire. Have a play, you might be surprised!

https://www.hamuniverse.com/randomwireantennalengths.html

73,

Dom, 2E0WHQ

RSGB 144Mhz FMAC Results Are In #contest

Dom - 2E0WHQ

#226

Hi All,

The results of the RSGB 144Mhz FMAC have just been released and it shows a fantastically strong presence of the Swindon & District Amateur Radio Club. In the first outing this year, we ended up in second place just 182 points behind Hereford and some 5832 points ahead of 3rd position. Well done everyone! We just need to keep the performance up of the rest of the year. Thanks to all of you who joined in, entered logs and gave points away. A brilliant first result.

Full details can be found here:

https://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/vhfresults.pl?Contest=144MHz%20FMAC&year=2022

73,
Dom, 2E0WHQ

Re: Interesting FMAC144 Stats

Bob G0VTA

#225

Thanks Marc, I’ll take care on that next time round. I find the process a little confusing and I’m never quite sure where it ends! Bob

Show quoted text

On 14 Jan 2022, at 13:53, Marc (M0KYB) <marc@...> wrote:

Hi Bob,

You submitted your log so your points will count but you didn't submit your claimed score. You're not the only one, this is a separate process towards the end of the log submission process and is easy to overlook. There is a separate button "Submit Claimed Score" or similar at the end.

Marc

Re: Interesting FMAC144 Stats

James (M1DST)

#224

All very valid points Graham. Normalised scores do complicate the view.

Once the scores are out, I'll reproduce the graph, overlay them onto last year's normalised scores and perhaps send it out from time to time so we can compare.

James

Show quoted text

On Fri, 14 Jan 2022 at 14:48, Graham (G4OED) via groups.io <grahperry=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:

This is an interesting discussion but there are a couple of things to remember.

1. The points scored resulting from your QSO’s only determine your position in the results table. Like Formula 1, your position determines how many points you are actually awarded. The top station gets 1000 points and the bottom one none. The difference in scores between adjacent places depends on the number of entries.

2. There are actually two competitions going on here. The 50W section and the 10W section. So far, Hereford appear to have got top place in both sections which will give them 2000 points. Out of our 18 stations listed by Marc, only three competed in the 10W section, whereas Hereford had roughly equal numbers of stations in each section.

Also, not everyone who enters a log also enters a claimed score. Based on these claimed scores, I reckon that we actually won the 50W section but were beaten hollow in the 10W section.

Graham
G4OED

On 14 Jan 2022, at 14:04, Marc (M0KYB) <marc@...> wrote:

That is very interesting James, they seem to have lost steam as the year went on, we can capitalise on that!

Sorry Bob, as James suggested, I typed in G0UTA by mistake, my apologies. Here is the corrected table:

Hereford Scores Swindon Scores

G4BJD/P 735 M0ACM 340

G0LGS 539 M1CJE 564

G1YBB/P 1554 2E0HFV -

G4ASR 1400 G0VTA 281

G8LNR/P 1299 G4OED 308

G0JCC 3741 G4HGV 121

G4ILI/P 2926 G8EFK 349

MW1LCR/P 4047 M1DST 453

G3WRA 5413 G0UWS 448

G1DRW 175 M0IEP 881

G8AQA 509 M0KYB 520

G4WQG 825

2E0WHQ/P 1387

M5CBS/P 1287

G4LDL/P 1337

G3MNJ 127

2E0YCC 184

G4AJA -

TOTALS 22338 9412

Re: Interesting FMAC144 Stats

Graham (G4OED)

#223

Looking at James’ graph I think that Hereford’s score will be about the same as last year but we will score around 7000. (All back of envelope stuff!!)

Graham

Show quoted text

On 14 Jan 2022, at 14:47, GRAHAM PERRY <grahperry@...> wrote:

This is an interesting discussion but there are a couple of things to remember.

1. The points scored resulting from your QSO’s only determine your position in the results table. Like Formula 1, your position determines how many points you are actually awarded. The top station gets 1000 points and the bottom one none. The difference in scores between adjacent places depends on the number of entries.

2. There are actually two competitions going on here. The 50W section and the 10W section. So far, Hereford appear to have got top place in both sections which will give them 2000 points. Out of our 18 stations listed by Marc, only three competed in the 10W section, whereas Hereford had roughly equal numbers of stations in each section.

Also, not everyone who enters a log also enters a claimed score. Based on these claimed scores, I reckon that we actually won the 50W section but were beaten hollow in the 10W section.

Graham
G4OED

On 14 Jan 2022, at 14:04, Marc (M0KYB) <marc@...> wrote:

That is very interesting James, they seem to have lost steam as the year went on, we can capitalise on that!

Sorry Bob, as James suggested, I typed in G0UTA by mistake, my apologies. Here is the corrected table:

Hereford Scores Swindon Scores

G4BJD/P 735 M0ACM 340

G0LGS 539 M1CJE 564

G1YBB/P 1554 2E0HFV -

G4ASR 1400 G0VTA 281

G8LNR/P 1299 G4OED 308

G0JCC 3741 G4HGV 121

G4ILI/P 2926 G8EFK 349

MW1LCR/P 4047 M1DST 453

G3WRA 5413 G0UWS 448

G1DRW 175 M0IEP 881

G8AQA 509 M0KYB 520

G4WQG 825

2E0WHQ/P 1387

M5CBS/P 1287

G4LDL/P 1337

G3MNJ 127

2E0YCC 184

G4AJA -

TOTALS 22338 9412

Re: Interesting FMAC144 Stats

Dom - 2E0WHQ

#222
Edited

I like the graph James.

One thing which should be noted is that last year, I operated January to April from home, which would have impacted my scores considerably and in the 432Mhz FMAC, I actually missed July and September, as well as working several months from home too.

Like you say, if we can stay consistent throughout the year, then we could be in with a chance. Although a little bumpy, our graph looks more consistent than the Hereford one. We just need to hope they perform the same again this year.

Dom.

Re: Interesting FMAC144 Stats

Graham (G4OED)

#221

This is an interesting discussion but there are a couple of things to remember.

1. The points scored resulting from your QSO’s only determine your position in the results table. Like Formula 1, your position determines how many points you are actually awarded. The top station gets 1000 points and the bottom one none. The difference in scores between adjacent places depends on the number of entries.

2. There are actually two competitions going on here. The 50W section and the 10W section. So far, Hereford appear to have got top place in both sections which will give them 2000 points. Out of our 18 stations listed by Marc, only three competed in the 10W section, whereas Hereford had roughly equal numbers of stations in each section.

Also, not everyone who enters a log also enters a claimed score. Based on these claimed scores, I reckon that we actually won the 50W section but were beaten hollow in the 10W section.

Graham

G4OED

Show quoted text

On 14 Jan 2022, at 14:04, Marc (M0KYB) <marc@...> wrote:

That is very interesting James, they seem to have lost steam as the year went on, we can capitalise on that!

Sorry Bob, as James suggested, I typed in G0UTA by mistake, my apologies. Here is the corrected table:

Hereford Scores Swindon Scores

G4BJD/P 735 M0ACM 340

G0LGS 539 M1CJE 564

G1YBB/P 1554 2E0HFV -

G4ASR 1400 G0VTA 281

G8LNR/P 1299 G4OED 308

G0JCC 3741 G4HGV 121

G4ILI/P 2926 G8EFK 349

MW1LCR/P 4047 M1DST 453

G3WRA 5413 G0UWS 448

G1DRW 175 M0IEP 881

G8AQA 509 M0KYB 520

G4WQG 825

2E0WHQ/P 1387

M5CBS/P 1287

G4LDL/P 1337

G3MNJ 127

2E0YCC 184

G4AJA -

TOTALS 22338 9412

Re: Interesting FMAC144 Stats

Marc (M0KYB)

#220

That is very interesting James, they seem to have lost steam as the year went on, we can capitalise on that!

Sorry Bob, as James suggested, I typed in G0UTA by mistake, my apologies. Here is the corrected table:

Hereford	Scores	Swindon	Scores

G4BJD/P	735	M0ACM	340
G0LGS	539	M1CJE	564
G1YBB/P	1554	2E0HFV	-
G4ASR	1400	G0VTA	281
G8LNR/P	1299	G4OED	308
G0JCC	3741	G4HGV	121
G4ILI/P	2926	G8EFK	349
MW1LCR/P	4047	M1DST	453
G3WRA	5413	G0UWS	448
G1DRW	175	M0IEP	881
G8AQA	509	M0KYB	520
		G4WQG	825
		2E0WHQ/P	1387
		M5CBS/P	1287
		G4LDL/P	1337
		G3MNJ	127
		2E0YCC	184
		G4AJA	-

TOTALS	22338		9412

Re: Contest hints and tips info

Dom - 2E0WHQ

#219

Great talk last night Ian, I really enjoyed it.
Thanks for the links.
Dom, 2E0WHQ