--- In FT817@y..., Brickle@p... wrote:
don wrote:
...a BIG difference in making the lower mast about 3' long
instead
of the 10" stock length...
I had a chance to fool around with an MP-1 a little bit yesterday
evening, using the tripod, both the short and the 2' "mobile" mast,
the sectional (ie not telescoping) whip, and the stock counterpoise
bundle. I also eventually added a capacitance hat made of 2 pieces
of
#12 wire each 19" long at the top of the whip.
The longer mast and the hat appeared (in the few minutes I had
before
dark) to make an appreciable difference in tuning (both sharpness
and
low SWR), particularly when the hat was rotated to be parallel with
some of the counterpoise wires. However the hat made it impossible
to
tune on 10m with the longer mast. 38" of hat is probably too much.
BTW one big advantage of the MP-1 over the ATX, by me anyway, is
that
it *will* handle higher power (50w easy) if you've got it. And
lately
some extra power has become indispensable...love my 817 but it ain't
cutting it with the short antennas at the moment.
Frank
AB2KT
Frank - Get a 3/8" x 24 thread "long" nut, like used on mobile
mounts, and screw the 9" and 24" sections together - That makes
things even better. An a hat made with more (4) but shorter wires
will give the same perfomance with less interaction. I also find the
telescoping whip much easier to work with.
Don
