CB Radio Talk

I don't have much of a station right now - at least antenna wise. Just a 75/80 meter off center fed dipole with the feedpoint at 40' going to a Yaesu FT-950. I decided to try out the ARRL 10 Meter Contest anyway - just to see who I could work as I sat at the desk doing an assignment for my Software Requirements Engineering class due on Monday evening. I worked a total of 31 stations. Most were on the east coast. But I did work Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Canada (Ontario and Yukon Territories), four Japan stations, Australia, Germany and finally Scotland. Not bad for 100 watts into a dipole not really meant for 10 meters.

That is great. My inverted L and inverted V antennas don't work well on 10 meters because they are low banders but I can work the world like Japan, South Africa, Russia, New Zealand, Austrailia, Sounth America, Hawaii, Alaska all of Europe and parts of Russia on my Imax 2000 vertical that sits on a 13 foot pole. It seems like your antenna may have an advantage over my inverted L cut for 75 meters and my G5RV dipole. That is great that you can get it to work up around 10.

I have a 2 element SteppIR Yagi...actually, I have two. The first one took a lightning strike a year and a half ago that fried the controller. My homeowner's insurance replaced it - hence the second 2 element Yagi. I just haven't had time to put it and the tower up since moving. I'm hoping to get started this Spring. When I start putting the new antenna together, I want to test the stepper motors on the old antenna. If they work, then I want to pull some money together and turn the new 2 element into a three element. It won't really get me much overall - adding an element doesn't do much for the forward gain but it does increase the front to back ratio a bit. But I figure I have most of the parts, I might as well use them.