Outdoor Adventure USA

Ralphie and I went up to Toro Peak yesterday and I took out my ICT7H to make some contacts on 146.520. I made 2 contacts, one from a fella in a truck in Mojave, and one in Yuma. The Yuma contact said we were about 134 miles apart. As a new ham, I am quite surprised I made contact that far out. I was on the stock rubber duck too, but with a homemade counterpoise. We also made a run up to Coyote Canyon.

Willie H wrote:Ralphie and I went up to Toro Peak yesterday and I took out my ICT7H to make some contacts on 146.520. I made 2 contacts, one from a fella in a truck in Mojave, and one in Yuma. The Yuma contact said we were about 134 miles apart. As a new ham, I am quite surprised I made contact that far out. I was on the stock rubber duck too, but with a homemade counterpoise. We also made a run up to Coyote Canyon.

Not surprising. With FM being a "line-of sight" affair, it's all about.....location, location, location.....Glad to hear you're having fun with the HT!

Pretty good. I hit Keller Peak from San Diego on 2.5W (~100miles)

sdnative wrote:Pretty good. I hit Keller Peak from San Diego on 2.5W (~100miles)

What kind of antenna are you using? I live in North Park which is fairly well elevated and I can't connect to Keller. I get full quieting with an AL-800, but cant connect to the repeater.

Willie H wrote:

sdnative wrote:Pretty good. I hit Keller Peak from San Diego on 2.5W (~100miles)

What kind of antenna are you using? I live in North Park which is fairly well elevated and I can't connect to Keller. I get full quieting with an AL-800, but cant connect to the repeater.

It was a Yaesu VX-7R on medium power using a Diamond NR770HBNMO. I was in my "secret spot" for listening to the net a couple of miles from my house. I'll send you the coordinates if you want to check it out.

Are you sure you have the PL setup properly?

Once I had a HT contact over 25,000 miles apart - oh, wait, - I was turned around....

I should be up there tonight.

Wow, Willie, with the rubber ducky you did great with your HT!!!

Using my homebrew yagi (PVC and steel rod based) I can hit Keller Repeater from about 50 miles (as per Garmin today) with an HT from Placentia. I point the yagi out the window pointing more or less east. I can hit K6BB in Big Bear this way as well, about 62 miles. I can get on both on 1.5 Watts with a bit of scratchiness on Tx, but with 5 watts, 85% or better. Not bad since there are trees, glass, walls, roofs, hill and more to get through and around, since Placentia is in a low spot below the Brea Hills.

I hit both from 120 miles using the same yagi (but pre gama match and so with a lot more noise on Tx then) from Manly Peak (Panamints) with a very clear signal from each. I could also kit Mozourka and Potosi from up there, clearly, about 95 miles as well as others.

So with the right antenna, distance can be had. I think I could go longer from the right places with the Yagi, Version 1. Version 2 will be lighter and better!

I want to build the backpacker yagi seen on Youtube. The guy used an arrow for the boom and piano (music wire?) for the elements. Seems perfect for the kind of stuff we do, especially when you are limited on space packing out a Wrangler. Anyway, I picked up a Comet for my HT today and I'm going to use the same tiger tail and see if I can check into the net tonight. I will be heading up to SDnatives' spot about 7:00. We'll see if I can get on. If I don't have any joy with the radio I will try checking in on Echolink.
Willie

I have seen the arrow and piano wire yagi and it seems to work very well.

http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/yag ... index.html

My only issue is durability, music wire is not all the strong and there are a few other weak points (in my opinion only).

My plan for version 2 would use 0.125 aluminium in place of the steel I used and a different tube set up, lighter and more packable. My PVC version, four feet long, was terrible in some places to hike with on the daypack, and with the added over engineered gama match, is too heavy (though I could forgo my stove and gas and enjoy PB&J to make a place for it in my backpack if I needed to).

It was a learning experience . . . that may prove useful down the road.

We’ll see if we can hear you tonight!