I ended my last post by briefly mentioning ham radio antennas. Today I’m going to write more on the subject, so if you don’t have any interest in ham radio, just skip down to the dinner plates!

Ham radio operators in the USA currently can be licensed in three levels. First is the Technician License which allows access to the Very High Frequency Band (VHF) and the Ultra High Frequency Band (UHF) with very limited access to High Frequency (HF) on six meters and 10 meters. Frequency and band nomenclature can be confusing for non-ham operators. Frequency is a measure of signal modulation in cycles per second known as Hertz. A band refers to a range of related frequencies and is broadly referred to by its wavelength in approximate meters. Here’s the thing – the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. So, the 2-meter band is a higher frequency band than the 20-meter band.

Then there’s the General License which opens up a lot more opportunities on HF bands that are useful for long-distance contacts. The top level is called Amateur Extra and requires in-depth technical knowledge of radio theory and operation.

When I began assembling my ham gear, I hadn’t taken my exam yet. I was supremely confident of passing the Technician exam and assumed I would be operating with a Technician License. I ordered a Comet GP6 antenna to receive and transmit on VHF/UHF – 2-meter and 70cm bands. This has proven to be a good choice – compact, easy to set up and take down, rugged and efficient. I also bought a dual band Diamond CP610 antenna. This is an enlarged version of a vertical like the Comet and will receive and transmit on the 6-meter and 10-meter bands. This was not the best choice as it wasn’t very stable at 22 feet long.

When I took my exam, I easily passed the Technician exam. Then they offered me a chance to take the General exam at no charge – I did and passed. This meant I needed another antenna for HF bands 10-meter and lower.

As full-time RVers, I have limitations on what antennas I can reasonably use. As I’ve studied and learned, it’s apparent that all antenna designs are compromises in one way or another. I needed an HF antenna that was portable, could easily be stored in the trailer, set up easily and not require a lot of real estate. Stability was important too – it would be bad to have my antenna fall over and hit someone’s RV.

I ended up buying an MFJ-2289 Big Ear antenna. This is a V-shaped dipole antenna with 17-foot long collapsible whips and a coil to tune to 10- through 40-meter bands. This antenna is aptly named – it has big ears and I could hear stations from long distances. On three occasions, when conditions were favorable, I was able to talk to a guy in Spain once and twice to a guy in Slovenia. However, most of time I could hear distant conversations, but they couldn’t hear me or my signal was broken and noisy. I usually operate on 20 meters in the afternoon and switch to 40 meters later in the day.

After doing more research, I found the V-dipole acts like a horizontal dipole. For maximum long distance efficiency, it needs to be mounted high above ground level – for 40 meters it would ideally be mounted at least 60 feet high. I can’t put up a 60-foot tower!

I’m also a little skeptical of the quality and durability of the materials MFJ uses. The long whips seem a little flimsy and are really pushed around by wind.

After doing more homework, I came up with a few ideas. One day, I was talking on the radio with a guy in northern California named Budd Drummond (W3FF). It turns out that Budd is the inventor of the Buddipole modular antenna system. He didn’t try to sell me on it – he just threw out a few ideas and suggested I check out the website and maybe contact his son, Chris Drummond who’s the owner and CEO of Buddipole. Budd is retired, although he still consults with Chris.

Buddipole has some standard packages and configurations, but many ham operators consider Buddipole to be the erector set of antennas. You can mix and match parts to make what you desire. I had a conversation with Chris and outlined my limitations and what I would like to be able to do with ham radio. We came up with a design that would meet my criteria – of course, compromises are always made with antennas. The design is based on what Buddipole calls a Versatee Vertical. I call mine a Frankenbuddi.

Buddipole uses high – quality materials. The collapsible shock-cord whip sections are made of anodized 7075 aluminum. They offer a system beginning with a stable, high-quality tripod and a collapsible mast. The Buddipole components screw directly into the end of the mast. This put the base of my vertical antenna about 10 1/2 feet above ground level and I have about 21 feet of vertical whip. It also has a tuning coil, so I can tune the antenna from 10 meters to 40 meters. It utilizes a wire counterpoise ground that I run from the antenna base feedpoint sloping to a point about three feet above the ground.

With all this stuff, I knew I needed instruments to properly set up the antenna. I bought a RigExpert antenna analyzer. With this meter, I’m able to set this up and accurately tune it. The whip does bend a bit in the wind. I’ve added a couple of guy lines to help support it although it never budged with three one-gallon water bottles suspended from the tripod.

I’m happy with the results so far. I’ve talked to people all over the US from the northeast to Florida to the midwest and western states. I listened to a conversation in Japanese that presumably originated in Japan – it was as clear as if they were in the same room with me. I also picked up a weak signal from Germany. Long distance to Europe or Japan or Australia is very much influenced by propagation conditions in the upper atmosphere – a good antenna helps immensely, but if conditions are bad, signals are bad.

Another ham operator here at Pleasant Harbor RV Resort really pushes the antenna boundaries. He has at least five antennas up in his site. See if you can spot them in the photo below.

Here they’re identified. The loop antenna is misleading in this photo – it’s much larger than it appears.

The whole idea of electro-magnetic waves constantly around us is fascinating to me. In fact, light is created by super-high frequency waves! Any conductor can be tuned to receive specific frequencies – it’s just a matter of amplifying the received signal and processing it to hear what it contains.

I’m the antenna

Catching vibration

You’re the transmitter

Give information

– Kraftwerk

The Buddipole came with a coaxial cable. It was another compromise. Buddipole leans toward highly mobile, lightweight equipment. The cable they supplied was RG58u and although it’s light and easily packed, it also creates high loss. I wanted to use my RG8U which has a much larger conductor – it’s stiff and heavy by comparison, but it’s also low loss. So on Saturday, Donna and I drove to Ham Radio Outlet in Peoria. I had forgotten how much metro Phoenix sprawls – it took us about 50 minutes to reach the store. I bought an adapter for my cable so I could hook up the low loss RG8U to the Buddipole TRSB. Checking both configurations with the RigExpert antenna analyzer, I can honestly say it was worth the trip. The RG8U coaxial cable is far superior in performance to the RG58u.

Time to talk food. Donna manned the Weber Q to cook a simple favorite – sriracha chicken thighs. She used boneless thighs this time and they were great. She says she’ll stick to boneless for this dish.

Last night, she prepared a meal we had both mostly forgotten about. In fact, we think we last had this when we were still living in our sticks-and-bricks home, so it’s been at least seven and half years.

It was very good. I don’t know why this dish was forgotten.

Our daily highs have dropped about ten degrees from what we experienced last week. We’re still running air conditioning, but not as early or as long. Donna’s been taking advantage of the swimming pool. You have to reserve a time slot which varies from two to four hours – they only allow 50 people at a time in each time slot and you can only reserve one time slot per day.

The long range forecast calls for low 80s the last week of this month. We’ve made a change to our itinerary. We’ll leave Lake Pleasant on the 30th and move to Buckeye where we’ll be able to more easily visit Jamie and Francisco.