Extreme Weather Brings Down The G5RV

-

Wow that was what the YL and myself both said earlier today as we walked down on the Glen. The usual trickle of the stream had turned into a white water torrent, in fact it was rather frightening so we observed with caution. It is what we say here in Yorkshire as "sods law" as we are both on holiday and had intended a camping expedition with a bit of portable operation. So we both decided that a day indoors playing radio would be the best thing to do on this wet and windy wild day. On returning to the home QTH i saw my motor cycle looking wet and exposed as the waterproof cover had blown off and was at the other end of the garden. I inspected the Antennas they were all in good shape so it was time to try for some QSOs, it was just at that moment that my mast that supports the 20M dipole and home brew collinear was blowing about as if it were a mobile Antenna, nether the less it was holding up with the other verticals. Unfortunately my G5RV was getting a good battering from the trees and eventually gave up the fight at one of the flexible fixing points, so i was out in the wind and rain tidying up 102feet of hard drawn enameled copper. I shall be re fixing it back up as soon as this wind and rain settles down, it could be tomorrow so i guess 80M is out for now. Luckily I can operate on all bands 40M upwards so I am not too upset with the fallen G5RV it is mainly 40M and 80M where it gets used and I have my Maldol vertical which has just put a reasonable signal to PA1LS on 40M.
I hope you all have still got your Antennas undamaged by these extreme weather storms and hope to work your station soon. 73 Simon

Comments

Nash , JN4VWH said…
Hi Simon,
I saw the news of Extreme Weather of North England at TV in Japan. You are no problem? I hope.
2:58 am
MØYKS Simon said…
Hi Nash, My QTH is just 1000ft/305M above sea level so We are safe from flooding, its the wind i have to fear up here. : )

However if it continues I may have to build an ARK/Boat hi hi

Simon
11:15 am
Nash , JN4VWH said…
Thank you for the comment, Simon. Ok, I understood.(^-^)/　Nash
3:07 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Full Size Delta Loop for 20M

-
Image
I came across a simple delta loop design courtesy of dxzone found on the net some time ago and have been planning to give it a go for a while. This weekend I had a couple of hours spare, so I decided to give it a go using some 2mm multi strand wire cable, a dipole centre and a mixture of 75 ohm and 50 ohm coaxial cable. The delta loop is supposed to be resonant on 20 meters but I found it to be a little high so at present I am tuning the Loop with my mfj-969 which copes extremely well. The resonant frequency is 13.2 MHz at the moment so the next chance I get, I shall shorten the overall length making sure that each of the three sides are still equal in length, and hopefully adjusting the antenna for maximum performance ATU free for 14.2 MHz. I believe the miscalculation in the resonant length is probably down to the fact that my wire is covered in the plastic sleeving from the manufacturer which always effects the swr as I have noticed in past experiments with dipoles you always get sl...
Read more

Homebrew 40/80 Trap Dipole Design

-
Image
This Antenna design was one that I used about 4 years ago, it worked exceptionally well on 80m and 40m. The size of the antenna makes a Half wave length on 80 meters, and with the traps a half wave on 40m with a SWR (standing wave ratio) of 1:1-1.5 across both bands. It worked well also on 20m with the use of an A.T.U (antenna tuning unit). I made my version of this antenna using 3mm multi strand copper cable which I left covered by the PVC insulation. The traps can either be home brewed using some 40mm diameter plastic drain pipe and winding wire around the pipe approximately 10 turns, then connected in line after the 10 metre lengths. Or the alternative is to purchase some commercially made 7.1 MHz traps, and fit them in line the same way. The antenna can be fed with 50 ohm coax with a home brew balan or again a commercially purchased balan. The wire lengths of the dipole are 2x 10 metres and 2x 6.7 metres as shown on the diagram above. This antenna can be mounted quite low to the gr...
Read more

YAESU G - 5500 Elevation Rotator Repair

-
Image
After 10 years of careful use my G-5500 eventually developed a couple of faults on the elevation rotator side.  Fault 1. For the past year I have had to guess the elevation as the readout was no longer working on the controller unit. I suspected the position switch which was located inside the rotator up above the house roof which was a pain in the butt to say the least. Fault 2. Over the winter the gearbox on the elevation rotor seized up solid. I plucked up some courage and erected my ladder and which with the aid of a rope to lower the mast it all worked out quite straight forward. Once down out with the impact driver and away I went. Once I split the case with the impact driver which was easy, I found lots of sandy grit and dried out remains of what should have or once was gearbox/bearing grease. The next step was to inspect the seized gearbox and then remove the main shaft which can only be carried out by first removing the entire gear housing u...
Read more