The Matter Of Two Antennas
For
The
Loudoun Amateur Radio Group's Thursday Night HF SSB - Voice Net
This is a Loudoun Count On Us Operation
Norm Styer - AI2C de Clarkes Gap - Canby - Loudoun - Virginia
(Purcellville, VA. January 28, 2008) Before we all go charging off to the 10-Meter expansion on the 8 PM Thursday Night HF SSB Voice Net that begins on January 31, there is the matter of antennas for two frequencies. Those now operating with a decent antenna on 75-Meters may be able to use the same antenna for receiving and with a 10-Meter antenna matching unit also transmit of 10-Meters.
Most will need two antennas if you want to copy everyone on both bands - 75 and 10-Meters. Your primary transmit antenna needs to be tuned and matched to your transmitter while your second antenna can just be a hunk of wire though a tune second antenna would be very nice. The hunk of wire should be as long and high as possible and hopefully no shorter than a quarter-wave length. If you intend to only transmit on 75-Meters than that same antenna should sorta work on 10-Meters with a nice antenna tuning unit.
And, unless your transceiver has two selectable antenna inputs then you will need a way to switch antennas to match the band you are either transmitting on or receiving on or both. You can do this by hand but it is a pain and you'll miss stuff and make mistakes. A simple two-position coax switch is another way. Some outboard antenna tuning units have built-in antenna switches like some of the MFJ units. There is stuff out there for switching. Go to www.eham.com and their 'Product Reviews' and look for things. Go through your AES catalog or just Google some of this stuff. Or, ask some more questions here.
Others operating on both bands may have some suggestions and can describe their successes and failures.
If this becomes too complicated for some then we'll 'temporarily park' an Alternate Net Control Station on the 10-Meter frequency to 'ride herd' there and relay comments to and from the 75-Meter frequency. The idea here is to just get folks up and running.
Remember, the antenna is the most important part of any radio station. We make choices every day. Hope to meet you on HF.
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