ZR6N / AG5RH
Happy Beaconeering in 2024

Sprouting a 2m Sprig

So, another sprout is springing up! This latest picture taken late on Friday afternoon, minutes after installation, shows my somewhat unsuccessful attempt to work VHF/UHF from my QTH. It is a 2m vertical (Diamond CP22E) that has 2 x 5/8 elements on top of each other. It claims a gain of 6.5dB and I must admit the build quality is very good. All the bits were in the box, so to speak, and it took me less than 30 minutes to mount.

The rest of the picture of the chimney shows my 2 SAT TV dishes, high up is the BroadGun Travelling Wave wire dipole, below that is the G5RV, and the 83m loop also passes through the view somewhere.

The BroadGun Travelling Wave wire dipole gives good results from 80m-10m at 100 watts and is almost permanently connected to my FT-840 for digital work. Depending on some random factors the loop gives slightly better results but not often.

The G5RV (in spite of the fact that it is standard and hasn’t been upgraded to the ZS6BKW specs) works extremely well. If I pull it up a little higher, or drop it a little lower, it just goes deaf! Exactly why I don’t know, but in this position it works very well and on voice I’m sometimes pumping a few extra watts through it – no problem.

The 83m horizontal loop is just strung from the trees and is interesting, it resonates on almost anything down to 6m. It is quieter that the G5RV and occasionally it is easier to work with.

But yes, the 2m vertical still doesn’t work. Connected to 15m of RG213 and mounted as high as it is I can just, but just, trigger the nearest repeater (Sandton). Simplex is just not possible as I am in a deep hole here and my signal just wafts over everybody’s heads (or antennas to be precise).

Till next time!