you will have been vertical and the sender will have been horizontal. if the antennas are the same polarity it will work. Most people do 2m/70cm ssb on horizontal and fm vertical but theres no rule to stop you doing ssb vertical but other people will need to know your doing it vertical. For HF it doesnt matter as the signal twists when it gets bounced round the world. Thats how i understand it i think anyway.
2 Likes
Aha! That is how I envisaged it at the time, which is why when @EI4JY was on SSB I tried to use the telescopic antenna built in to the legendary radio that is the FT-290R to see would it work. Audio improved but not enough to hear clearly enough to chase him.
I think that is how I was mixing myself up over polarity with regards the RHM-12. Thanks everyone for clearing that up, it makes more sense to me now. Always something new to learn!
Regardless, about the RHM-12, yes, she costs a small fortune, but it is Diamond quality and performance for me both QRP and QRO has been fantastic for all of 2025 since I received it and used it in the field.
Highly recommended, just if you do consider buying one, do your sums first as it may work out better for you to purchase direct from Japan. It worked out about €100 cheaper for me after including shipping, taxes, duties etc to EI.
Hi Ian,
The most common mistake made by FM users when first trying SSB is to assume that the frequency readout on your radio is accurate. If your contact says he is on 144.305 and when you tune to that frequency on your dial, his signal sounds garbled, it means there is a frequency difference between your radio and his. Which one is correct? Probably neither is. Precise frequency accuracy was never a strong point with early radios and the practice was to tune to the other signal, whatever your dial says. Tuning SSB accurately is an art but the voice should sound very close to the same as it is on fm or am. A mistake often made is to tune in the incoming signal so it is slightly high pitched. Then when you transmit, your voice will sound low pitched in his receiver. If he corrects his tuning so you sound high pitched, when he transmits on that frequency he will sound low pitched to you. Before long you leapfrog each other all the way up the band and you are nowhere near where you intended to be. And with the ft290 it does not have the small frequency steps of more recent radios, so the only way to tune in an incoming signal so it sounds exactly right is to use the clarifier or RIT control. This allows for 10-20 hz adjustments to make the voice sound right, without taking you into the contact going on a few kHz away. Does that help to understand the SSB tuning problem?
73
Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
1 Like
That is of great help, thanks Andrew! Oddly enough I did try using the clarifier on the 290 but to no avail. I thought it was more for CW use. I had the radio fully serviced and aligned recently so it should be spot on, hence I took the assumption during the attempt to make contact that it was more (my) user error than anything else. I get now why 2m and 70cm SSB is a tricky beast!
I’m going to read up on VHF and UHF more to try and get more knowledge about them in general. Thanks for the steer, it is really good information.
There are several versions available, now even from AliExpess. As @DD5LP stated above, the one from Kommunica is the original.
About two years ago I bought a copy from Wimo (the one from Kommunica was not available anymore).
On the higher bands, this 2.5m tall antenna performs pretty well. Save some weight and leave the 80m coil at home.
About two years ago, I created a YouTube video with my mounting solution for space restricted summits:
73 Stephan
1 Like