Sunday, May 23, 2021

New Antenna - QRPGuys DS1

 I put together a QRPGuys DS1 antenna today.  Went together pretty well.  Really the only hard part was screwing in one of the BNC connectors (because I didn't have anything that was the right tool for holding one of the bolts).  I had to order a tap, and needed to pick up a few things at Home Depot.




Haven't had a chance to do much with it yet - just measured the SWR on 40m.  


Can't really see the NanoVNA screen here.  The SWR seemed to move a bit - probably because I was using a short coax and my body was affecting things.  When stable, it seemed to be about 1.1:1 at 7.058, and went up to 2:1 at 7.118.  So, overall a bit narrower than I would like, and possibly centered a bit low.  Will hopefully get to try WSPR on it soon.

Got a few minutes to fire it up in the backyard:


Not getting as far as I'm used to, but this is also not the best time of day (5pm in the afternoon).  


And I am definitely getting farther on my dipole