23cm Experimental Antenna Setup. Success.

The past few days we had decent weather, so I have worked a bit on setting up an initial 1296MHz antenna.

I have a Diamond X5000 antenna that I decided to use for this. This one is a 1.8m (6ft) long vertical. I used some stackable (mil) mast pieces, so the antenna feed point is now around 4.5m up.

I used the cable I had already. 13m of RG213, connected to the antenna and with a PL259 (sic) connector at the other end. Then another 10m cable of the 400 type (very stiff, just over 10mm diameter).

A rough estimate of the cable loss would be 6-10dB.

Even with this rather poor setup I could hear the OZ7IGY beacon on 23cm, easily readable. The beacon is only 26km away, but uses a horizontal antenna, and is located behind some hills from my location.

The system works, for sure.

This evening OZ2KC and I made the first test with a decent antenna setup here, and even if the distance is only 6km, it is a good test. Signals were S6-S8, fully quieted with FM. Later there will be more tests with more distant stations, of course, but this is a good start.

The second test was reducing power from the IC910s (we both have one) to the minimum possible. We could still work two-way.

Test #3 was trying the hand held transceiver with about 300mW out. That provided a slightly better signal than the IC910 at minimum power. I estimate that the minimum power out on 23cm with the IC910 is 100-200mW. With 6-10dB cable loss the QSO was actually possible with about 20-30mW at the antenna. The system really works, and there are more improvements to make.

This was a good day.

There will be better antennas coming up this year when the weather gets better, and I can assemble the necessary material.

1) The vertical (or another one) could be placed higher for better coverage.

1a) If I can find the supporting pipe, I can set up the X7000 antenna. This one is 5m long and has even more gain than the onbe I used today.

2) As I need long cables to put the antennas in suitable positions I am planning on several improvements to the antenna system:

2a) Getting a good preamplifier mounted near the antenna

2b) Getting a power amplifier near the antenna, so the full 10W can be radiated. I do have a suitable 10W module for this.

3) For use with SSB/CW for DX work I need a horizontal antenna with some gain, and a rotator system. I am also considering using a 25W power amplifier near the antenna, along with a good preamplifier, and mounted as high as I can without it being too visible.

Along with that, there should be experiments with getting some 2400MHz and 10GHzup and running. First experiments should probably be portable from a higher altitude than I have. Initially I just want to have at least one QSO done on as many bands as possible.