Yes. But it should be working better.
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Sunday, the 6th of February, the DARC Fieldday will take place. Maybe a good oportunity to work some DX.
The 2m part will take place from 11:00-13:00 UTC while the 70cm part will take place from 9:00-11:00 UTC…
Exchange: RS(T)+serial number+locator (format: JN49GX)
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0900 - 1300 is also the RSGB AFS Superleague session on 70cm this coming Sunday.
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That fits well 
at least for 70cm…
I radiated 25W of cw on 144.060, 0830 to 0845 vertical but no takers. Unable to self spot, no interweb on gw/nw044.
Old cloth ears
G0EVV
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@G0EVV …Hi David. Ah missed you. Did you do 60m cw today. You were way down in the noise on 30m so I waited on 5.3545 but was called to lunch…did I miss you?
73 Allan
Sorry Allan with 2 summits to activate and bad wx forecast from1400 I had to cut my cloth accordingly. The attempted 2m CW activity gobbled up 30 minutes of summit time.
Amazingly I received an Email from a person who had see me activating and had taken a picture of me. Being a ham, he found me on Sota and email on QRZ. You could not make it up!
Regards
David
G0EVV
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No probs David. It was cold here and I imagined that it would influence your activation strategy. Catch you soon. 73 Allan.
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Continuing my 2m investigations I took delivery of a Diamond 144S10R antenna today. As the name suggests it’s a 10 element Yagi and 2m long when put together but the boom is split in the middle and everything is tightened up with wing nuts. It fits in the same bag as the one I made for the 5 element version so is transportable although of course a bit heavier, 1.1Kg compared to 0.6Kg. I’m hoping my Decathlon pole will support it in calm winds and I plan to give it a run out soon. Friday’s forecast is good here but there’s a small impediment to me getting out at the moment - see below. I had raised temperature and very runny nose on Sunday, but things much improved now.
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If I get another negative test tomorrow I am going out to Kit Hill G/DC-003 to try the new 10 Element Yagi. Supporting the mast involves a lot of string and tent pegs! Assuming I can replicate on the summit tomorrow my test run today I will do a repeat of the activation at the start of this thread: 2m data, 2m ssb, 2m cw then 2m fm. I’m not desperate for QSOs on all 4 modes as that goal has been achieved but I took delivery of a BaMaTech key today so I want to give it a try out.
I hope to be QRV around 1100 UTC.
John
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John I would like to try to work you on 2m CW tomorrow. I will be set up for 25W 2m CW on 144.050 vertical at 1100.
Call on 07506378902. Larriston hill GM/SS-161
Regards
David
David, that’s very kind. I’ll swap the order of things and go vertical first on CW from 1100 +/- then go to FM which might be busy. I can see others have posted around that time on 2m FM so there may be a chance of further S2S on that mode.
I’ll give you a call when I arrive at the summit.
The new key looks the part, apologies in advance for the operator side.
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I’ve amended the title of this thread to better reflect how it is being used now.
My activation of Kit Hill today (G/DC-003) I originally described here but I’ve now moved it to a new thread.
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10 elements in 2m? That’s a lot for 9.5dBd gain. I bet you could miss out directors 2, 4, 6 and it will perform about the same for less weight and wind load. Worth trying.
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The manufacturer claims 11.6 dBi but as I can’t get it very high with the current mast it may not be achieving that. The wind was very light today and in a gale it would be a handful. Removing a few directors is an idea worth looking at in such conditions.
I’ve now moved the account to a new thread in the Activations sections. Apologies for any confusion this might cause.
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They claim it in dBi because it looks bigger than the normally specified dBd. 11.6dBi is 9.45dBd
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Thank you. Decibels are my weak point. I guess the real question is: Is it worth dragging up a summit instead of the 5 element version I already have?
In calm weather it can be used as today showed. In a gale not so I think.
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The gain is set by 2m boom length. You can have s 5 ele with same gain as your 10 ele. It may not have the same F/B ratio or bandwidth. though.
There is no universal antenna.
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Indeed. A downside of an antenna which is too directional is you will miss people you are not pointing it at. It will work well if you are pointing in the right direction but compared to a vertical antenna it has disadvantages if you are trying just to reach anyone in range.
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