AmateurRadio.com

Homemade vertical mounting....."thing"

After doing some "playing" with the location of my 1788 mag loop on the balcony and getting really nowhere with lowering the SWR. The lowest I could get it was 1.6:1. I decided to go vertical with the loop to see what happened. Now those of you that have the MFJ 1788 loop know there is a bracket that comes with the loop for just this purpose. Well when I moved I know I put this bracket somewhere safe...........and it's still there as I can't remember where this "safe" place is!  I did try putting the loop vertical bout a month ago but at the time I was tired from all the fiddling around on the balcony and my vertical attempt was very hap-hazard. That approach did not seem to work for me either and I just left it at that. As time passed I decided to take a more serous approach at mounting the loop in a vertical position. I went to the hardware store and picked up some metal conduit and the finished product was a decent looking mount that allowed the loop to be vertical.  In a vertical position I knew the antenna would be directional but if the SWR was lower that was just fine with me. Low and behold on a certain place on the balcony the SWR is 1.4:1 which I am pleased with.The loop is still mounted inside a tripod on the balcony and you can see some holes in the tubing. When the new loop vertical bracket is placed inside the tripod tubing I slide a pin through. This stops the loop from spinning if a wind comes up. The next step will be to put some watts into it and see what
happens! It just really gets me how time just flies and all the non ham things pop up which make me very happy that in just over a  year I will be retired. I will have as much time as I need to get things done (not just ham things) I can't see myself getting board......well that is the plan anyway. Now I did mention in my last post about an update on the Sun SDRpro 2 rig that is going to have to wait for about 1 more week.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].