On-air tests of the Wimo TA-1 turnstile antenna

A few months ago I started looking at various options for omnidirectional antennas with circular polarization for satellite communications. I came across the TA-1 137 MHz turnstile antenna from Wimo, which looked like an interesting option for a reasonable price.

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DX-88 SWR on 2015.11.07

Today we got the first storm warning of this season and so I went out to secure the DX-88 with 4 guy-wires. At the same time I did a new tuning round because I have noticed that some of the bands have moved since the last adjustment. This time I have managed to get 30 meters working.

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DX-88 resurrection

It has now been eight years since I have retired my Hy-Gain DX-88 antenna declaring it dead for good. I was standing with a broken base element for the second time and I decided not to spend any more time and money on it but try a new antenna, a Butternut HF2V covering 160, 80, 40 and 30 meters.

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Butternut HF2V on 10 and 15 meters

Two recordings I made during the 2011 CQ WW CW contest showing how well the Butternut HF2V receives on the 21 and 28 MHz bands. The videos were recorded using the Funcube Dongle equipped with the HF converter kit and my GNU Radio based software defined radio receiver, GQRX.

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Butternut HF2V check 2011

HF2V full shortwave scan 2011.11.26I usually check my Butternut HF2V vertical antenna every spring to see how much it has suffered during the winter. The winters in Denmark can be very windy and wet, which is not very good for an antenna. This spring I was rather busy and I postponed the annual check until now. I haven’t used the antenna for a long time, so I didn’t know what to expect. Physically, the antenna is still standing and only one of the four guy ropes needed to be repaired since the last check more than 1.5 year ago.

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The Butternut HF2V antenna after three years

More than three years ago that I have mounted my Butternut HF2V multi-band vertical antenna outside and left it suffer from the windy and humid Danish climate. The settings and performance that I could achieve back then are documented in several blog posts, e.g.Tuning the Butternut HF2V.

What has happened with the Butternut HF2V since then? Well, nothing really… During these three years, the antenna has been standing and performing very well without any need for fixing or tuning it. I have done a visual inspection and tightened the guy ropes every now and then, but that’s all. In order to document it I have taken a few photos and made some SWR scans.

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