Udo: I really like your setup!? Is that the smaller 3000mah talentcell?? I struggled between it and the larger 6000 that I ended up getting.? I figured the larger one would let me have it operational for considerably longer, though tbh I'm not sure I'll ever need it off grid for as long as it'd allow me to be.? But, with the Pi and its screen working off the battery too, I felt better with the extra capacity assurance.? And it's the same footprint as the tuner which was another plus.? I may end up also getting the 3000 to use with the QMX alone with a resonant antenna (tuned efhw or dipole) separate from this loadout.? I like your paddles - n6ara right?? I have boards coming for vk3il's pressure paddles that'll replace these, they'll be much smaller (or, thinner anyway) and let me space out stuff and not need to cram all the bits in the corner.
DK4BN:?I just took the antenna out for the first time on this trip as well.? It is not finished and I haven't done good tests with it yet, but here it is.? It is built on 1/2" PVC (0.839" OD, or 21.3mm) with 22ga BNTechgo wire off Amazon (my measurements: insulated dia 0.027", 0.6858mm, and uninsulated 0.0253", 0.6426mm) and 4' whip (actually 46-3/8").? Top of former has a m4 bolt to accept the Elecraft whip.? The tap screws are m3, and spacing between coils is (or, was) whatever dia the m3 washers are - this GREATLY affects the inductance as it breaks up one coil into multiple.? I don't bother with the math on this, since I'm going to have to do trial and error on the coil winds anyway?(though there's a multiple coil inductance calculator that can be used).? I tuned it there in the park before getting on the air with it (except for 40m).? Here is a closeup of the coils if you'd care to count winds.? Note there's a length of wire (2-3" running from the bnc connector to the bottom of the former through that hole to the first coil.? Bottom is 20m - I had to remove 5 or 6 winds to bring it up from about 11MHz to 13.7MHz hence all the slack.? Removing another wind and keeping the coil tight would have taken it too far above 14 so I spread the winds out to decrease inductance a little and now it's spot on 14.0, and to tweak it to higher in the band I can just pull the whip in a small amount.? Bottom+Middle is 30m and where it is is just right, with pulling the whip in a small amount.? Bottom+Middle+Top is 40m, which I have not tried yet other than observe on the nanoVna and it does not have a nice dip.? My guess is there is not enough coil and I need to add more, but I'm out of space with this former and I'll probably rebuild and move this all to a slightly longer one (it's not glued yet).? But, where it is I get ~3.5:1 SWR on 40 which is tunable (and did in fact tune to ~1.1:1) with the atu-10.? Once I get it all where I like it I'll wrap in heat shrink leaving holes for the taps.? I hope this helps
