I have been making use of Instagram for a while because it allows for fast publishing of BS and images.

https://www.instagram.com/on5zo/

Lately I haven’t got much to say that is blog worthy. After all these years you cannot keep on telling the same things about the same contests.

Here is a collection of things I posted about the 20m dipole on my portable field day mast made of tubular tower and a base with a winch mounted on it. I made a tapered aluminum 20m dipole which is a beauty but too heavy for my mast. This mast was designed to haul up some wire antennas for field day, not to carry heavy aluminum antennas. Let alone a rotator.

In the end I decided it was too risky to put this in the air even without any wind. I made up an ad-hoc wire dipole on two cheap lightweight fishing poles I have here for almost ten years. This worked just fine on a mechanical level and proved a winner RF-wise to fill the gap when the beam was to USA. It was oriented with the antenna lobes radiating to Japan and SW-EU.

 

Making the coax choke

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dit bericht bekijken op Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcycling a leftover stretch of Aircell7 to feedpoint and coax choke for yet another upcoming antenna project. Something lightweight horizontally polarized on the field day mast as addition to the yagi for single band contesting. Putting my SJ2W design stackmatch to work, filling the gaps in the elevation pattern. Yes: wannabe Big Gun things… ________________________________________________ #cqcontest #amateurradio #hamradio #radioaficionado #coaxchoke #aircell7

Een bericht gedeeld door Franki – ON5ZO – OQ5M (@on5zo) op 13 Jun 2020 om 7:40 (PDT)

 

Attaching to the mast

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The center assembly for the 20m dipole is ready: feed point and bracket to attach to the portable field day mast. Starting diameter is 40mm. A bit overkill for a 20m band element (~10m long) but the center isolator was made for this and I don’t have access to a lathe right now to turn it down. Adapt, improvise, overcome. Maybe I’ll use agressive tapering to get to a smaller diameter fast. I’ve never put anything this big in my /P mast. Only wires. I hope it’ll work. Build first, worry later! ________________________________________________ #hamradio #amateurradio #diyhamradio #hamradioantennas #antennaporn #dipoleantenna #homebrewantenna

Een bericht gedeeld door Franki – ON5ZO – OQ5M (@on5zo) op 19 Jun 2020 om 1:40 (PDT)

 

The mast partially assembled

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gravity unleashed upon the lower 6m of my modular winched field day mast. The project I learned welding with in 2014. It can go up to 15m high by adding more aluminum tubes. It’s designed to haul up dipoles with ropes and pulleys. Setting up extra stuff for next weekend’s contest… __________________________________________ #hamradio #amateurradio #radioaficionado #diyhamradio #antennamast #antennaporn

Een bericht gedeeld door Franki – ON5ZO – OQ5M (@on5zo) op 9 Jul 2020 om 2:37 (PDT)

 

Aluminum version too heavy

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bollocks! This 10.5m long half wave dipole for 14 MHz is a heavy duty beauty but my fear became reality: too heavy for my portable auxiliary tower which was designed to carry wire dipoles (inverted V style) and get raised “unloaded”. I got it up to 8m for a test which proved calculations and production was spot on. But it is not something for my field day mast. I still have one day before the contest. Adapt, improvise, overcome. Plan B is hatching… _______________________________________________ #amateurradio #hamradio #radioaficionado #dipoleantenna #antennaporn #diyhamradio

Een bericht gedeeld door Franki – ON5ZO – OQ5M (@on5zo) op 9 Jul 2020 om 2:48 (PDT)

 

Lightweight wire version is up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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ON5ZO’s Quick Fix 20m dipole, feather weight class. Using 2x 4m long El Cheapo fishing poles. So the wire ends simply hang loose 🤙 Currently about 12m above ground with signal lobe to Russia and S-W EU. A/A+B/B stackmatched with the 3L yagi. A waste of the time that went into the aluminum dipole that is too heavy for this mast… ______________________________________________ #hamradio #amateurradio #antennaporn #dipoleantenna #radioaficionado #homebrewantenna #diyhamradio

Een bericht gedeeld door Franki – ON5ZO – OQ5M (@on5zo) op 10 Jul 2020 om 4:52 (PDT)