Antenna's and Telescopes

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Last weekend I carried out the planned work on my Cushcraft MA5B which was the swapping over of antenna masts. In the end I decided not to go with the telescopic mast as it seemed slightly flimsy compared to my 50 mm diameter tube so I ended up just carrying out some maintenance checks on the fixings and rotator.


The higher end of the HF bands have been unreliable on an evening for the past couple of weeks so I have been having a listen down on 40 meters as well as 80 meters where some activity has been found but nothing to write home about. I have been pleased with the performance on 40 meters from the vertical Hustler 6BTV since I re-sited it away from the trees. The Carolina Windom has also had some of my time as I decided to get the feed point higher up in the air from around 20 feet to 30 feet, which seems to be working out reasonably well on 80 meters.


Hopefully the conditions will be improved on the higher end of HF and I will be able to use the beam but for now its the vertical and off-center fed wire that is in use as I listen to the static crashes coming in with a few late night DXers down on 3.795 MHz.


The Yorkshire night sky's has been clear and full of stars this week so I keep taking time out to observe some inter-stellar wonders with last years Christmas present which is a pretty neat Celestron EQ114mm which I got from my family who are fast asleep tucked up in bed when I am engaging in these zany activities.

Best 73 and happy Ham'ing de M0YKS

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