Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Antenna experiment shenanigans at POTA US-4571

Headed out for a quick activation before the week of rain.
I decided to try out a new 1/4 wave vertical antenna. I thought I had tuned it but turns out I hadn't :facepalm:
I couldn't get the Z-Tuner to find a match so bailed out with the KX2.

The CMC choke seemed to do its job too.
The wind played havoc :/ I had a loose connection somewhere and kept getting blips during QSOs until the antenna keeled over.

KX2 @ 10W; 1/4 wave vertical; BamaTech TP-III
10 QSOs in 40min

More work needed tuning the vertical and then working on the multiband prototype.
Lesson learned - don't try a new setup in the field before I've tested it at home.

 - U