A Question for the Antenna Gurus

[W3WN]

Though you might have no other option as toploading with a coil, add some wire above that.
I don't like (top) loading with coils, i rather use top hats of wire.
Coils lower efficiency, lower bandwidth too.
No possebillety to run a thin wire from the top to a neighbouring structure?, make an inverted L out of it, introduce autotuner at the feeed point with as much radials as you can get in...

No. The only "neighboring structure" would be the house itself, and believe me, the Boss would not put up with it. That would also run the "stealthy" aspects of it.

Sometime in the next few days, I'll get my hands on some modeling software and try a few things. I'm not ruling anything out, so long as it physically fits inside the fiberglass & isn't overly complicated. Roughly 22 feet of wire inside the flag pole, plus another foot or three (give or take) to get to the SGC tuner, should load just fine on 40 & 30 meters for certain, and a high probability of 20 & 17 without too much difficulty. So the worst that might happen, if 12 & 10 turn out a little flaky on this, is that I retune the Solarcon, or keep using the Butternut on the high bands.

[W3WN]

You probably already know this. Anyone with black walnut trees on their property should know. They randomly drop large branches with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes dead limbs, sometime living ones. Go figure. I often expect them to break when we get a strong storm but no. Only during a clear still day.

Yup. Which reminds me, I need to trim some branches on the small one growing behind the house.

[W3WN]

< snip >Lets try a frequency there and a time, i can make 800 watts there at ease.
You make the suggestion freq/time, i'll adapt ;)
< snip >

How's tomorrow afternoon (your local) look? I'll be up in the neighborhood of 1200 Z anyway; the ladies have a Miracle League game to be at around 1330 Z, and they need at least 45 minutes to get there (plus they have to allow for PennDOT road construction). So I'll have a few hours to myself, although there's plenty to do around here.

17 meters around 18140 kHz ought to be good. If the band is open, we can even try 12 meters, but I think 17 is a better candidate.

[PA5COR]

17 meters at 18.140 it is.
I'll put the transceiver to that frequency from 12.00 Zulu till 00.00 Zulu ( GMT) tomorrow.

Lets hope cndx will do some magic ( and the SB-1000) ;)

[W3WN]

17 meters at 18.140 it is.
I'll put the transceiver to that frequency from 12.00 Zulu till 00.00 Zulu ( GMT) tomorrow.

Lets hope cndx will do some magic ( and the SB-1000) ;)

Sounds good. 1200 is the EARLIEST I would be in the shack, that's assuming that the ladies will leave that early. Knowing my wife, well, 1230 may be more practical. And of course, this will be +/- QRM and other stations, but I'm hopeful.

And it should go without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that any other Islanders who happen to be around or up at the time are welcome to chime in! Gives me an excuse to use one of my "new" Island-themed QSL cards...

I do want to give 12 a crack at some point in the morning as well. I'm standing at about 74 confirmed to date on the band, so if it opens, I want to see if I can pick up anyone else.

[NQ6U]

Currently (18:04 UCT) monitoring 18.140.

[W3WN]

Currently (18:04 UCT) monitoring 18.140.

Wish I could. Sure beats parsing the corporate database looking for school districts.

(Tomorrow!)

[PA5COR]

Lots of europeans on 18.140 had a few try's, nothing from the USA, running 600 watts here in the FD-4.
Will try again in 10 minutes 16.00 Zulu, but on 18.139, UK qso going on at 18.141.500 dang.

[W3WN]

I don't think it's going to work today. I'm not hearing any EU stations; seeing some spots (mainly from the left coast) but nothing actually heard.

[PA5COR]

Just European stations and Africa...
We will have to try it again later when the bands are better.
;)