Bruce K1BG was contacted by Gary K1EBM from Brookline NH. Gary can’t get around very well any more, and asked for help with an antenna. Bruce convinced John KK1X to help, so in the middle of September, they removed a doublet that wasn’t working. It was temporarily replaced with an ICOM AH-4 random wire tuner on loan from Bruce, and a random piece of wire.

That didn’t work so well either, so on October 3, Bruce, John, and Bob AB1EO returned to the scene of the crime and removed the random wire antenna. Bruce had rebuilt the doublet to the proper dimensions, and that doublet was installed in its place. To be honest, Gary had the setup nailed. 1/2″ (12mm) Dacron rope, pulleys in the trees, and large cleats fastened to the trees. We taped the doublet to the support rope at approximately 6 foot (2m) intervals. The doublet is solid wire, so it will last longer with minimal flexing,

While Bob and Bruce were determining the sweet spots for the tuner in the shack, John dropped a sloping 40m EFHW antenna, and relocated it according to Gary’s wishes – “more horizontal.” The doublet and EFHW are nearly perpendicular. It’s hard to keep things orthogonal when trees aren’t on grids…

Bruce doing final check before hoisting the doublet skyward

Plans are pending for the installation of a 40m bobtail curtain antenna. KK1X wrote about a half-square antenna in the November 2023 issue of the Signal. A bobtail is essentially two half-squares arranged end-to-end, fed in the center. There’s a nice article at Hamuniverse covering the half square, double half square, and the bobtail. I’m not going to steal his pictures.

Gary is reporting that the new antenna arrangement is working quite nicely. He’s excited to get the bobtail back. He had to remove the other one he’d been using.

73 de KK1X

Our second Saturday of the month Parks-on-the-Air (POTA) activation was a great success!  John, KK1X, Andrew, KF1BER, Mike, KC1QKM, and K1BG all had stations pumping out power and making QSOs!  Mary, KC1VSQ, joined in the fun and made a number of QSOs.

To qualify as a valid POTA operation, each station participating must make at least 10 contacts.  So as a group we probably made in excess of 100 contacts.  Each of the stations had their own various antennas and equipment configurations.  Everything from table-tops to stations stuffed in backpacks.

October 10th happens to be the next second Saturday of the month.  Stay tuned for info on NVARC’s next POTA adventure.

The Nashoba Valley Amateur Radio Club’s September meeting is Thursday, September 17th, at the Pepperell Community Center. We’ll start socializing at 7:00 PM, with the main meeting kicking off at 7:30 PM.

Our guest speaker will be our very own Steve Davidson, NA1T. Steve will be demonstrating his EMCOMM trailer and emergency gear. The trailer is impressive, and so are Steve’s emergency “Go-To Kits”. You won’t want to miss September’s meeting!

We look forward to having members and guests participate! Everyone is welcome, and please feel free to bring a friend or family member.

We look forward to seeing you there.

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As always, I look forward to you folks contributing to the newsletter. Little articles, interesting operating tips, even editorial comments.

73,
John KK1X
Signal Editor

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