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Thread: Another NOOB

  1. #121
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    Yes Sir, I like it here. Born in Kennestone Hospital and lived here all my life. Lived in the Marietta / Smyrna area until about 20 years ago and bought this house up here. My parents still live in Marietta.
    I work up here when I bought this house and the same year I lost that job and haven't worked here since Drive to down town Atlanta every day and back. I get to go in early and get out early so that helps a little.

    All of my family is from Alabama my mom and dad moved here and dad went to work for Lockheed. He retired about 15 years ago mom soon after.

  2. #122
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    Been around that area and its beautiful!! There is large lake somewhere near you I believe that a lot of people go camping and boating, jet skiing, and so on. Can't remember where exactly it was, I think north of Marietta maybe?? Anyway, spent the weekend there with my now X wife and kids and I do recall having a grand time!!! At any rate maybe one day I'll hear you on air!! 222 Daytona Bch., FL, operator name is Sean. 73 and God Bless.

  3. #123
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    Yea, that would be Lake Allatoona. It a Corps of Engineers Reservoir. That about 20 miles south of me give or take.

  4. #124
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    That is the one!! Had a great time there. My son got to ride the jet ski and we stayed in the X's Uncle's camper. Nice place. At any rate. I know your approx location. Beautiful country outside of Atlanta!!

  5. #125
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    Or correctly put, beautiful up there, the state, shoot anywhere outside of Atlanta LOL!! I feel for you having to work there!! At any rate, maybe when conditions allow I can speak with you on air on SSB. It happens from time to time. I've a couple logged contacts from the Atlanta area, as well as south of there and North as well.
    73 and God Bless.

  6. #126
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    I can't say that I have heard anyone from Fla. yet. I hear people from out west a bunch and a couple from Canada.

    I still have to learn what to look for in conditions that would be good for getting out. The past couple of days have been quiet. I moved the 980 indoors and have been connecting it to the Lil Wil antenna and putting it on top of the truck in the evenings. I have been reaching out local and have made a couple of contacts on channel 33. It seems as I was told to be where locals hang out. When the weekend gets here I will hook back up to the Sirio.

    I need to get a base antenna, I don't know how high I will be able to mount it by myself. I think I can set the SWR's with it on the ground before I have to get it up and mounted to a pole. Question- with the radials on some of these antennas do you set SWR's with or without them. It seems it will be difficult to do with them on and on the ground without damage. Remember I have to do this all by my lonesome so maybe the antenna without radials would be the way to go.

  7. #127
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    Get an IMAX2000. For a starter antenna they work well. Just screw the 3 sections together and get it up to 20ft to the base. A 1.5" to 1.25" galvanized steel pipe will work well. Drill the top pipe and lower one section about 18" down into the other. This will give you about 18ft if you put it in the ground a couple feet then attach it to the side of your house if possible. For tuning the antenna, just use 1 pipe and dig a hole and place pipe in it. It helps if you have some extra pipe or conduit you could pound a piece down in the ground and then slide the 10ft mast pipe with the antenna mounted to it already. Slide your new pipe either into or over the one that you pounded into the ground. Before you place the mast pipe up mount the antenna to the mast pipe and level it. Having a few sets of sawhorses work well. Safety is key so take your time and plan it out well in advance. I like aluminum antennas myself and use a sirio vector 4000. Not an easy antenna to setup by yourself. The sirio tornado is another antenna that is simple to install and even with the radials isn't hard to mess with. If you use the tuning guide that comes with the antenna and use the exact measurements the antenna will work correctly and tune correctly. Or should anyway. If you are going to keep installing or messing with antennas and setups and so forth, get yourself an antenna analyzer. You can find them used sometimes or there are some newer ones out that don't break the bank. The MFJ269 I use is a tool more than a luxury. It makes tuning of antennas a breeze!! Worth every penny. JMHO.

  8. #128
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    Thanks, that one uses rings at the bottom for SWR adjustment I take it and it will work without the radials?

    I was looking at the Sirio GPE 27 or the Tornado 27 as they are both sub-100 dollar antennas. DNJ has the tornado for 71 dollars right now. I just can't find anything on how to adjust SWR's on ether of these. I think it is with the very TIP but once its up no way to reach it.

    If I understand what you're saying that you measure the Sirio antenna length but I still don't know about setting SWR's unless that's part of it.

  9. #129
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    On the IMAX2000 they make a GPK that some say works, some say it doesn't. Either way the IMAX2000 is an easy antenna to install but they are heavy. Also with the aluminum antennas That is part of setting it up with the lengths provided by Sirio. It will have the length for the tip which is the adjustment point on both the tornado and GPE27. If you read and go by the instructions you won't have to bring antenna down for any tuning, is a one shot deal and if done right does work. Sirio has their measurements just right!! Both antenna have a matching network so all that is needed is for the tip to be set on them, and with the tornado the radials need to be a specific length as well. Again, all lengths are provided by Sirio and are quite accurate. I achieved a flat vswr and good R and X readings as well with my tornado, and I just measured twice before putting it up. If done right antenna will tune correctly and for that matter any of the 2 antennas I mentioned or you did will work well. I've a local that has one of the inexpensive GPE27's and it gets out just fine, same with the tornado, it worked well for me. The GPE 27 is much shorter than the tornado. By about 3ft. Not much difference. And the rx/tx is basically the same with the same with both antennas 20-30ft off the ground. There are other antennas you can get, it just depends on what you want to do the most. Local and dx or just DX for the most part. If the answer is DX for the most part might want to look into a 1/2 wave dipole. They can be had for about $40 or so for a good one with a 1:1 balun. These placed at anywhere from 15ft up work well for dx placed horizontally. The higher you can get one the better, but not always necessary with DX. For both local and DX use, one of the 3 antennas first listed will work fine for a starter antenna. Like I said if you take your time and put it together correctly it will tune just fine. This has been my experience anyhow.

  10. #130
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    The I-MAX 2000 may be the easy one to get up. I could put it together on the ground and then walk it up. It would still be tricky.

    I just haven't been able to find instructions on the web and that's frustrating! I would like to know what I'm buying.

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