Cheap 1/4 wave antenna whip from AliExpress

Hi Andy,

I’m so glad to hear from you on new summit.
I couldn’t find any on Aliexpress, the options are confusing.
We’re in a rainy and stormy season. I’ll get back to the topic soon.

73
Carlos
PY2VM

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I get you. There are times I don’t really feel like taking my camera (not too often thankfully!), but I don’t feel it collides too much with SOTA either. What helped me use my camera more is find what the right way to carry it; I use one of those quick release rucksack strap attachments. The camera is accessible but doesn’t hamper my movement; it works great. I also chose a small and light camera and was even willing to drop the viewfinder (the Z30 doesn’t have one).

I don’t have a portfolio but you if you’re on facebook you can follow me; I post some series publicly.

Take your camera on your next SOTA activation! I see great photos on your blog…

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I knew I had something in a box somewhere…

This coil is wound so you can clip a crocodile clip to the wire without shorting the turns together.

Wire diameter = 1.75 mm
Spacing between turns = 0.75 mm
Coil outside diameter = 53.25 mm
Total weight is 110 g (including Paxolin and Polyethylene formers and bolts etc.)

The bottom contact is a 4 mm banana plug and top contact is a 4 mm banana socket

Maybe you can make something based on these photos and measurements?

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Mine turned up last night. Luckily they just left it on my front porch, and it was completely undamaged. No mail slot here :laughing:

Today after work I took a walk to a park that is a few KMs from my house so I could test the antenna. The ribbon cable radial was crap so I made my own consisting of 4 radials, each 3.5m long.

The antenna took about one minute to set up. The SWR was looking good on 20 with the whip fully extended. I called CQ once and got a reply. Had a nice QSO with AE7CG down in Prescott, AZ. Good signals both ways. After that I had a QSO with AC6YY/QRP down in San Jose, CA. Good signals both ways.

I had posted on Slack that I was QRV, and @WB6POT asked me if the antenna would tune up on 30. I went over to 30 and the KX2 tuner was up to the task! I had QSOs with Peter and @N0DNF on 30.

Next I tried 17 meters. By shortening the antenna by two sections, the swr was great. Got a good report from @KE6MT. Over to 15 next, and again I was able to get a good swr without using the ATU by adjusting the length of the whip. Called CQ and got a good RBN hit in Hawaii.

Back to 20 and had a QSO with WB5BKL in Texas. At this point I was getting very cold (temps close to 0C) and it was getting dark. Time to pack up and walk home!

I am impressed with the antenna considering how inexpensive it was. The quality seems good! Hopefully this weekend I will be trying it on a summit.



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