Selling ham radio gear

Never successfully transmitted on hf. 2 meters fine. A long list of conflicting info given to me, mistakes Made by me thru lack of knowledge, equipment sent for warranty repairs and no fault found (probably my bad again), promised :Elmer” help that never materialized which led me to more probable mistakes on my part, could go on, but Just tired of beating my head against the wall.

me, too. still don't understand what your problem was, though.

Thanks to all for the help and info. I have made an arrangement for selling all of my equipment and am out of the ham radio hobby. I am sorry it did not work out for me.

Not much is easier than an 80' length of 14ga wire.. and if you have a tuner. or a rig that can tune it... That's all you need. in fact (well 83') is my favored antenna just now. 100 seems to work better on 80 but the owner's manual for the Tuner says that's too long so I cut it down to 83.. I just buy a 100 foot spool. Easiest antenna to put up there is

83 feet wire---about 25 or 40 feet of nylon (NO WIRE IN IT) roap. a loop on the end. a 2 pound weight and then you "David and Goliath" it over a tree limb.. As high as you can make it fly. Pull the wire up and if needed another limb.. I run it up a fishing pole on the RV or in some sites just hook it at the roofline.

Geez, you guys are telling a new ham to string up a G5RV or 125ft of wire to get him on the air. Why not assist him with something simple like a Ham Stick? For under 50 bucks he would be on the air.

If what you need is an antenna.. Two simpliest are teh half wave dipole and the end fed long wire.
Now in my Movice days.. I used both. the radio had a PI_network output and could load a 1 foot piece of wire on 80 meters (That is an amazing range) So most any wire plugged into the antenna port worked.

But a proper dipole is about 125 feet as I recall (62.5 each side of the feed point) you can look up the precise length on line.. 40 meters is half that, and you can do the mate for the rest. If you have the room you can do some fantasying things with dipole type antennas.

If you like music. and a good mix of styles. go to the url WTWW.US and click on the listen live link and Transmitter 2, at least on weekends This is a SHORT WAVE station , ,,, well 5 of them actually. though I think only 4 are live. run by a family of Ham radio operators and most of the Advertisers are Ham Radio supplyers like Maine Trading company. Iv'e met some of the principles from this station at Dayton.

ON weekends also enjoy the music. Frequency (if you wish to listen via radio) Varies with time of day. Web site helps tell you when.

Not sure why your quitting as you do not give much information. Perhaps you have a huge SWR and your killing your signal....You need to explain what antenna you are using and where it is located and your SWR on any band

I have an MFJ 1777 g5rv knock off and get out thousands of miles. There is loads and loads of info on the internet. www.youtube.com and search for ham antennas. You will find lots of videos to DIY.

So if your still going to quit what are you selling please pm me

73
k2bkr

Never tried that antenna, looks a bit more complex than a G5RV with the parallel sections and it is shorter than a G5RV so it might fit in a smaller space.

Setting up antennas is more of a trial and error type of thing and not an exact science..

Most wire antennas are pretty forgiving, can be setup in a "V" (center down with ends up), Inverted "V" Ends down and center up, flat (ends and center up) and any other way you can get it.

Higher off the ground is pretty much always better but working with what you have can work. Inside attic may work but as always outside and above structures tends to work better.

Dipoles are bidirectional, point the ends east/west and best coverage will be north and south direction with lesser coverage east/west.

Hope things work out with the promised Elmer help, sometimes one must be patient enough to get help.

Gdetrailer wrote:

georgelesley wrote:
I got my technician license in Feb this year and my general in March. I have been unable to get on the air and actually transmit. Local clubs (I belong to three) have not been any real help. Many promises, little action.I am tired of listening only on everything lower than 2 meters, my two meter rig does work well. Other than eBay are there any other sites to sell nearly new HF equipment?

KN4KGF

Sad to hear your local club has not been of much help, my DW and I was very lucky to have some very wonderful "Elmers" in our local club. Sadly, they are now Silent Keys.

Kind of puzzled as to why you are not able to "get on the air"??

Does not take much work to setup a transmitable HF or any other band antenna..

For HF, a simple long wire with the wire cut close to the band length you want to use, good ground and a basic manual antenna tuner will easily have you talking around the world on 100W..

My DW and I have used a G5RV antenna with a MFJ manual tuner and with 100W landed contacts all over the world..

G5RV uses two lengths of wire at about 51 ft each length, you can use pretty much any type of wire as long as it has the strength to support the weight. It is center fed with 34 ft of 450 ohm ladder line and the ladder line is connected to your 50 ohm coax (make a simple decoupling loop of several loops of the coax).

The ends of the wire are then supported via rope into a tree or pipe.

At one place I put up two 1" pipes about 15 ft in the air, putting pulleys at the top of each and a pipe at the center point with a pulley..

Used ropes to pull the antenna to the tops of the pipe then used TV wire standoffs down the center feed pipe to hold the ladder line away from the steel pipe.

HERE is a website that gives info on building your own G5RV..

Or you can buy one premade, the expensive part is the 450 ohm ladder line.

For 2 mtrs 1/4 wave magnet mount wip or even a handheld should get you into most any repeater local to you within 20-50 miles..

When we moved into our current home, I never got around to putting the HF antenna back up.. Life kind of got into the way and eventually we sold the HF rig.. Still kept 2mtr and 440 stuff and we still use that now and then.

I bought two new Alpha Delta fan dipole antennas one 160-40 mtr, one 40-10 Mtr mounted in our huge attic and are about 15’ off the ground.. the two mtr antenna in the attic works perfectly. I have a few more ideas and some more promised “Elmer” help this week. Will advise.

georgelesley wrote:
I got my technician license in Feb this year and my general in March. I have been unable to get on the air and actually transmit. Local clubs (I belong to three) have not been any real help. Many promises, little action.I am tired of listening only on everything lower than 2 meters, my two meter rig does work well. Other than eBay are there any other sites to sell nearly new HF equipment?

KN4KGF

Sad to hear your local club has not been of much help, my DW and I was very lucky to have some very wonderful "Elmers" in our local club. Sadly, they are now Silent Keys.

Kind of puzzled as to why you are not able to "get on the air"??

Does not take much work to setup a transmitable HF or any other band antenna..

For HF, a simple long wire with the wire cut close to the band length you want to use, good ground and a basic manual antenna tuner will easily have you talking around the world on 100W..

My DW and I have used a G5RV antenna with a MFJ manual tuner and with 100W landed contacts all over the world..

G5RV uses two lengths of wire at about 51 ft each length, you can use pretty much any type of wire as long as it has the strength to support the weight. It is center fed with 34 ft of 450 ohm ladder line and the ladder line is connected to your 50 ohm coax (make a simple decoupling loop of several loops of the coax).

The ends of the wire are then supported via rope into a tree or pipe.

At one place I put up two 1" pipes about 15 ft in the air, putting pulleys at the top of each and a pipe at the center point with a pulley..

Used ropes to pull the antenna to the tops of the pipe then used TV wire standoffs down the center feed pipe to hold the ladder line away from the steel pipe.

HERE is a website that gives info on building your own G5RV..

Or you can buy one premade, the expensive part is the 450 ohm ladder line.

For 2 mtrs 1/4 wave magnet mount wip or even a handheld should get you into most any repeater local to you within 20-50 miles..

When we moved into our current home, I never got around to putting the HF antenna back up.. Life kind of got into the way and eventually we sold the HF rig.. Still kept 2mtr and 440 stuff and we still use that now and then.