[Fwd: LF: Portable operation on 136]

[André Kesteloot]

dave wrote:

> Dear all,
> I have just returned from Cornwall from where I managed to have ONE QSO and
> got two reports....  Thanks to Bill G6NB and John G4GVC. I was flying a
> large delta type kite on the end of 80mtrs of airframe wire which I chose
> because of its glass-fibre braid which adds strength. When the wind was
> right there was no problem with the aerial, it just sat there in the sky!
> The problems were with the feed arrangement and the earth.
> Feeding the RF into the wire required great care to ensure that the wire
> came nowhere near the car body or the ground no matter what the wind did.
> The best system I found was to use a bungy (luggage strap) to attach the
> wire to the car and provide some control of tension. The slack part of the
> wire could then be routed to the tuning variometer avoiding any metal bits.
> I feel that some EHT cable of the type used to feed the anode caps of TV
> tubes would be best for this purpose.
>
> The earth was interesting. The first portable site (Sunday morning, near
> the beach) had a barbed wire fence around the field which I used as an
> earth and it worked fine. I did have an earth stake with me, but nothing to
> bash it in with.....  again.... but when I tried connecting it I got less
> current up the wire than before.
> The next portable location, near St Ewe, which I used on Sunday afternoon
> and Wednesday evening had no fence so I just ran 100mtrs of so of insulated
> wire down the side of the road with the long grass keeping it well clear of
> the ground. This worked best of all, again the earth-stake made things
> worse.
>
> I will try to perfect the system before I go to Northern Scotland in
> October, especially with a view to operating from inside the car with the
> doors shut..... it can be cold up there!
>
> Loran interference was terrible, reading S8 on the meter on the RX in CW
> bandwidth, whilst the German TX on 138.9 was 20dB over 9 as usual. Very
> interested in the discussion regarding the TX. I now know what you
> South-coast stations suffer!
>
> 73 Dave G3YXM