Portable Antenna for 23cm.

 I located the old 12 element Yagi antenna I had lying around and made it ready for some portable operation on the band.

I found an old photo tripod that had lost the mounting plate and used the simplest possible method of attaching the antenna: Duct tape. Yes laugh away, but it is good enough for a few tests I want to do, but of course a better mounting is needed for more stability of the setup.

As thing are now, I can go out on a hilltop (or other place with a good view) and operate 23cm FM at horizontal polarization, but just 300mW from the handheld transceiver. This can be carried easily on to a hilltop, also with a few spare batteries, and a few experiments can be done.

I do have a mobile transceiver, the TM741 with a 23cm module. I need to test that and if it is still in good working order I will have 10W output.. This can be easily used from the car, with a 12V battery. The 12V battery of the EV is not suitable, so a better battery is needed. This I cannot carry around easily, so hilltops not accessible by vehicles are not in my thoughts unless there will be two people carrying the equipment.

The old transverter I have also needs to be tested, and if it is in good working order, 5-10W SSB/CW operation. As IF transceiver I can use my old IC202 or the FT817. Both need a modification to control the transverter.

For home operation there is much more work to do, as nI will need a good vertical setup and the 16 element yagi on a rotator, too. hat will take a bit longer.

My crystal ball shows a bit of 23cm activity in my future ;) .