Newbie antenna question

Apologies if this sounds too simplistic but I am just working my way in. I have got a pole and SOTA beam for 2m but am also planning to build an HF dipole to cover 40m, 60m (I know I need to get NOV), 80m and possibly 20m too. Are there any sort of “favoured” SOTA frequencies that it would make sense to have the antenna resonance centred on? I will be using an FT-817 if that is any help.
Any comment would be really helpful.
Thanks

Malcolm

In reply to MM0YMG:

Hi Malcolm

The common SOTA frequencies are…

40m cw 7.032
40m ssb aprox 7.097 and 7.118
60m cw 5.399.2
60m ssb 5.398.5 (this is the centre of sota activity)
80m CW 3.558
80M ssb 3.666
20M cw 14.058 - 14.061
20m ssb 14.285

Hope this helps, welcome to SOTA and have fun.

73 Mike GW0DSP

In reply to MM0YMG:
Hi Malcolm,
On 60m my first choice would be 5.398.5 SSB or 5.399.2 CW.
On 40m 7.032 CW or 7.118 / 7.090 SSB
On 20m 14.285 SSB or 14.058 CW
Just look at the spots and alerts to see what other activators are using.
Good luck,
David, G3RDQ.

In reply to GW0DSP:

Not to forget 3.725 SSB Mike, a la G4YSS and others use. 10.118 CW if you want to consider that mode Malcolm.

73, Gerald

FWIW… 60m guidelines recommend that 5.291 and 5.289 are used for CW i.e. 1 kHz either side of the beacons to avoid QRMing them… also away from other channels to avoid QRM’ing SSB users and vice versa.

See the bottom of this page: Spectrum Forum - Radio Society of Great Britain - Main Site : Radio Society of Great Britain – Main Site

However, I have only ever had CW QSO’s on 5.291 after self spotting and not many folks would be casually monitoring compared with channel FE on 5.3895.

Welcome and hope to work you soon Malcolm.

73 Marc G0AZS

In reply to MM0YMG:

but I am just working my way in

Malcolm, the reflector has all the threads stored away on it but only the most recent are shown on the spots and reflector pages. There is a search facility that enables you to search all these threads. There is a huge amount of useful information hidden away that the search facility can reveal. There’s also a lot of drivel and I have to admit I am responsible for significant amounts of it!

As a newcomer you may find it of great benefit to have a dig through the old threads and see what we’ve all been rabbiting on about for the last few years. It may answer a lot of your questions. If there’s anything that’s not clear or not really covered then ask away and you’ll find that people on here will be very pleased to answer and help you.

Andy
MM0FMF

In reply to G4OIG:

Indeed Gerald, I think that 3.666 is the most commomly used frequency though.

Report received by the way, thanks for another great job.

73
Mike

In reply to MM0YMG:
Hi Malcolm here is a link to a vertical i built thats cut for 20m my best DX from a SOTA summit is Israel on 15m with the use of a tuner on 5w with the vertical. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.amesbury/M3FVB/20m%20port.htm Sean M0GIA

In reply to M0GIA:
Thanks guys
That gives me quite a bit to go on so will now start measuring out wires. At this stage I am more interested in SSB foci but with luck the CW bit will come one day!
Hopefully get to QSO with you all at some point
Best wishes

Malcolm

In reply to MM0YMG:

Hi Malcolm

This will cover the frequencies you want, still mirrored here (thank you Andy)

http://www.moosedata.com/g6wrw/hfdipole.pdf

and here

Carolyn