I'm going to try and set up an antenna for 40 meters in my attic as a small experiment. It was originally produced by F6CYV and I came across it on the web the other day whilst browsing. He reckons it pretty good having worked over 150 separate countries around Europe.
The actual antenna is made up of 2mm wire, the 2 coils are made up of 18 turns of 2mm wire and the distance of turns is also 2mm.
The diameter of the coils is 7/8 cm and the coax feed is comprised of 75 ohms, an old TV cable should do. But for a good feed from coax to the dipole a 1:1 Balun would help.
I'll let you know how it goes!
You are probably sick of hearing about my stroke recovery by now, I know I am! But one interesting thing to come out of it is my return to using my Kent paddle key.
For the past few months I've been working away trying to practise my CW on a straight key because when I previously tried on the Kent I kept making very basic mistakes, irregular hand and finger movements caused me to make lots of errors I felt these problems were due to tiredness or lapse of concentration brought about by having this damn stroke all those months ago.
So I packed it away in January, thinking I would possibly get back to it at some stage, but no set date and really thinking in the back of my mind I'm never likely to get it back!
Well it turns out that subconsciously I'm obviously still recovering because today I tried the Kent key again and blow me I sent a QSO without making one mistake. That's the first time I've used it since January when it felt rather alien and not quite right, but today it felt good and natural.
The rhythm was back and although a slow with a speed of roughly 12 wpm, my wrist and hand weren't jerking or the fingers twitching and I actually felt confident.
That's not say I still wont be using my good old Czech straight key which is an excellent piece of kit all for the princely sum of £25 off eBay. It was an absolute bargain!
The Czech key
The Kent paddle
