You do. But the aren't too many mountains in Sanford.
As long as you can hit the repeaters you want you're good.
Other than that, I hope that's a twinlead j-pole in pvc. If not, rf burns are a concern if someone touches it while you're transmitting.
I added the leg that a lot of designs call for and mounted my j pole on a rotator (free, going to a beam at some point).
I still have my wire dipole in the attic. I'm having trouble hitting the W4FAR 2m antenna on the j pole. I can hit everything around the repeater, and talked simplex to a fella just west of Charlotte the other day, but can't be heard on the repeater. I can open it, but nothing comes through. I get in ok on the dipole.
My guess would be a mountain peak or hump between you and the repeater site.
The dipole has a somewhat donut shaped radiation pattern.
The j-pole pattern will have a lower take off angle that the dipole, so it will have a harder time getting over the peak.
So I passed the technician test today and with no studying almost passed the general. Will study for general and take it next time its available locally.
So I passed the technician test today and with no studying almost passed the general. Will study for general and take it next time its available locally.
Congratulations! I had no problems with tech, and general wasn't much harder. But boy that extra was a doozy to do blind! Feel free to post any questions here, surely.some of us will be able to help. Also, I recommend hamstudy.org
I am going to buy the gordon west general book and use hamstudy. I went through the technician book first and then started doing the test on ham study until I consistently got higher than 85.
My first project is getting the antenna higher. I am thinking a rohn type with the hinge base. I would go with eve mount but that is 35 feet up on a 12/12 roof and would require a lift at 225 each time I want to change something.
So I passed the technician test today and with no studying almost passed the general. Will study for general and take it next time its available locally.
Definitely interested in the tower. I only missed the general by 3. And I never even took a practice exam for it. Pretty sure your smarter than me so general should be easy for you.
Put up a 40m dipole today. Put it half way over the house, which means I can now play radio from inside on my nice comfy bed. Having a chimney that goes all the way to the basement sure makes for a good cable chase lol. With the tuner, should be able to work 40 and up. Need to tune it a little bit, but it was way too windy.
Best part? It didn't cost me anything. Coax was given to me, had the wire laying around, and the center piece is a 9mm ammo tray.
Don't bother tuning the dipole.
If that tuner with tune a 40m dipole on 20m (it will), it won't even notice what it has to do the touch up from one end of 40m to the other.
When it comes to dipole I always say do the math, cut the wire, use a tuner.
If you have room to make that dipole a total of 88 ft. you can squeeze 80m and 60m out of it.
80m will be narrow and it will re-tune every 15 khz er so, but at least you'll have all bands.
Don't bother tuning the dipole.
If that tuner with tune a 40m dipole on 20m (it will), it won't even notice what it has to do the touch up from one end of 40m to the other.
When it comes to dipole I always say do the math, cut the wire, use a tuner.
If you have room to make that dipole a total of 88 ft. you can squeeze 80m and 60m out of it.
80m will be narrow and it will re-tune every 15 khz er so, but at least you'll have all bands.
KN4WHN. I got my license to communicate during SHTF, and trail coms so I wouldn’t be illegal. I need to practice with it more. Not really sure what I’m doing with it.
