Apologies to Charles Schulz the great cartoonist of Peanuts, but like Linus van Pelt without his security blanket, I am going crazy without my Flex 3000!
I sent it in for repairs (pre-amp chip failed) and for the warranty fix for the pre-amp overall.
Wow, using my TS-570 is such a travel back in time. I can only use my ears and not my eyes with this rig. I know Flex will take good care and do the fixes right, but I sure hope the rig is back in time for my holiday break! Fingers crossed.
I put up more antennas today: Par End-Fedz models for 40 and 30 meters. These are stealthy, half-wave wire antennas for single-band operation. The models I have are designed for 100 watts. They work quite well, especially on 40 and 30 meters. High efficiency, no ground field needed like a quarter wave. How is the impedance matched at the end of a half wave, for a 50 ohm coax feed? I am GLAD you asked! Here's an excellent article on performance, matching networks, and more details.
http://www.aa5tb.com/efha.html
The antennas are efficient. Overall performance depends upon the properties of the ground. Some folks claim that common-mode currents are induced in the coax, since the outer braid is serving as the counterpoise. Well, a couple of turns of coax into a lazy man's 1:1 current balun fixes that.
So how did the end-fed antenna work? Well, I worked CE0Y/SM6CUK on the first call tonight. That's not a scientific test, but it does prove that I AM radiating a signal.
73 and good DX!
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