100 Watts and a Wire Podcast / Facebook

[Titanium]

Met Christian - K0STH last month on 7.180 before his weekly net and he told me about his podcast 100 Watts and a Wire. I know there are a lot of podcasts out there, but this one is exceptional! Just listened to episode 91 and was LMAO! http://100wattsandawire.com/100-watts-and-a-wire/ A very talented on-air personality spins a great story mixing technology with life events.

Joined the FB page a few weeks ago and really enjoy the positive interactions.

 

[N6BY]

Which HF rig did you end up buying?

 

[KE4EST]

ooh oooh I know, I know!

 

[Titanium]

Yaesu FT-991 with MFJ-993B tuner. Really like the digital filters. Amazing what they can pull out of the mud along with a good pair of headphones! www.qrz.com/db/AI6US

Had a blast on the SSB contest last weekend! Getting the hang of LoTW, eQSL and sending out a few paper QSLs for the exotic ones. Currently using DXlab Suite for radio interface and logging, but going to switch over to N3FJP as that is what the club uses. Want to be familiar with the software for field day as all radios are networked to a common database server and I am sure I will be the designated logger... LOL!

 

[lost_mesa]

Brian, how do you like the EFHW-8010 antenna? I have been thinking about getting one, as it would fit well in my yard.

 

[Titanium]

It does quite well. Very happy with the performance and usually am heard in pile-ups. The first wire install path passed over the part of the property that I found out later (with a handheld shortwave radio) had the highest noise levels. Once the wire run was relocated to a different area, the noise level was significantly reduced.

Am running the wire SSE with the last 20+ feet in an "L" shape to the East. Hard to predict the radiation pattern as the coax runs 80'+ at a 30 degree angle down the roof towards the West then drops 30' to the building entry. Try to map that pattern on any antenna design software! LOL!!!

My only problem with the end fed was that it initially created some RFI. The coax is the counterpoise on an end fed antenna. Had to install 6 ferrite clip-on on the coax at the entry to the building to eliminate the RFI.

Also, as their instructions suggest, don't ground the balun match box lug if ground is more than 20' away as it becomes an additional counterpoise. Best performance and least RFI on my system is with only grounding the coax at the building entry bulkhead and not grounding to the balun match box.

I was concerned about running the counterpoise coax next to my BUD satellite actuator control wires, but no weird count errors or other problems!


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[lost_mesa]

OK, thanks for all the good info. I'll have about a 200 ft run of coax, as it is that far to the nearest trees. This also helps to get it away from the RFI generated by my off grid solar system. I currently have about 150 ft of #24 wire, 6 ft off the ground as a test antenna there, feed with RG59. (Hey, it was free) Works good on receive, nice and quiet and I'm hearing the world. Don't think I'll try feeding 100 watts into though.

Thanks again

 

[N6BY]

Yaesu FT-991 with MFJ-993B tuner. Really like the digital filters. Amazing what they can pull out of the mud along with a good pair of headphones! www.qrz.com/db/AI6US ...

Very versatile transceiver for 160 meters to 70 cm (effectively everything HAM). If you want to hear what your radio is putting out I can record you when you're on a local net and send you a WAV file. I would just need to know when and the frequency.

For my home built RX only antenna, I just made a 9:1 balun and ran some motor winding wire from the highest point of my roof to a tree on the edge of my lot. It's about 100' and runs southeast, with about a 10 degree down slope. It works great receiving the 80 meter band, but not so great on 40 meters. With the thin wire up high, its an 'invisible' antenna.

 

[Corrado]

Very nice looking setup on QRZ.

Some day are we going to see Titanium amateur radio products designed by Brian?