KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog
Happy 4th of July to everyone. How about a simple, almost free antenna for your back yard? This antenna is not original, but it does a pretty decent job on 40 m through 10 m with a an ATU or plays well on 40/15 m with ordinary coax. While I was cleaning up an old MFJ 33'fiberglass mast in the back yard, I attached a 33' piece of #14 gauge wire to the fully extended mast, cut 6, 33' of old #22 gauge wire for radials, and attached the wires to an old Budwig connector. I ran some RG-8 I had in the shack to my Drake MN-4. A 3'\ piece of RG-8 ran from the MN-4 to the Swan 100 MX. Nothing fancy. But I had fun running some contacts on 40- meters. Fifteen meters was a bit dead early this morning, so I won't try that band until later today. Even with 10-15 watts out, I had a lot of fun getting some cw done on the lower 25 kHz of 40 meters. I just did this on a whim and had fun in the process. I hope you have a good and safe holiday. 73 de KH6JRM.