The ATX-1080 is a small multi band vertical antenna covering 80 – 6 meters, including the WARC bands. It is very similar to the MP-1, a major difference being that the coil is placed at the bottom. Also, the MP-1 has a continuous tuning on the coil while the ATX-1080 has fixed taps for the connections. I bought the antenna at the German Wimo who even supplies some extra documentation along with the original paper.
FT-817 Receiver is Great
I have had some nice QSO’s on 20 meters. I had to turn the power down to 2.5 watts because the power supply I was using got quite hot. The FT-817 does indeed use a lot of Amps when running at 5 watts and 14 Volts.
DX-88 is up again
I felt I should give the FT-817 a fair chance, so I have put the DX-88 up again. Of course, I have new tuning parameters and it seemed, that some of the parameters were not like they should have been.
ATX-1080 on 80m
During my indoor tests of the ATX-1080 tonight I tried to switch to 80 meters.
FT-817 QSK
Well, to make a not so long story even shorter: FORGET ABOUT QSK WITH THE FT-817!
Indoor Tests
I am trying again on 40 meters with the ATX indoors. It seems to make a big difference whether the radial is just thrown down on the floor or it is deployed to its full length. In the latter case SWR comes down to 1.1 or “1 bar” on the FT-817, which is somehow better than what I had outside, while in the first case I just couldn’t get the SWR below “4 bars”.
ATX-1080 SWR
The weather was quite rainy today but it cleared up during the afternoon. I decided to go outside with the FT-817 and the ATX-1080 antenna to make some SWR measurements. I also wanted to se how reliable the built-in SWR meter of the FT-187 actually is.
First Impressions of the FT-817
A month ago I bought a second hand FT-817ND but for various reasons I couldn’t test it until now. Finally, I have the FT-817 in my hands. My very first impression: Oauw! This thing is really tiny, much smaller than I expected. It can almos fit into the pocket of my winter coat :))
First impressions of the MP-1
I bought the MP-1 together with my Sparrow 40 kit from the German QRP Shop in October last year. I didn’t post any test results back then, but now here they are…
No Tests This Time…
I am in Høm now for a few days of vacation. It’s nice summer and the wheather forecast looks very good. I was considering to put up the DX-88 to have a quick DX run 😉 Also, it would be rather nice to have the systematic SWR scan across all bands, which I didn not perform during Christmas.As usual, the support mast I used last time is lost and I couldn not find a new one… So, I guess, no DX this time :((