Gpredict Updates

I just realized that the last time I have blogged about my pet project, Gpredict, was back in February 2007. Back then, the big news was the Sky at a Glance function and there has in fact been a lot of evolution since then despite the big silence in the Gpredict Developer Blog. Let me try to sum up the progress from last two years as well as what you can expect to happen in the weeks to come.

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Tuning the Butternut HF2V

Like with any other multi-band vertical the different bands are coupled with each other. This means that modifying the settings on one band will influence the others. This effect is worst on the low bands (40 and below) and less noticeable on the higher bands. If you only have the basic two-band HF2V there are only two bands/parameters to adjust and you can easily get through the alignment by doing a few iterations on each band. However, if you have the 30 or the 160 (or both) extensions mounted, aligning all 3 or 4 bands can become an endless process.

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ATX-1080 Tuning

The resonnance frequency of the ATX-1080 is adjusted by selecting the correct taps to connect (band change) and adjusting the telescope length for fine tuning on the given frequency. The radial length should have different lengths for each band as well. The original document describes which taps need to be connected and how long the telescope should be on each band, but says only that the radial length should be less than 1/4 lambda. Wimo, on the other hand, provides to pages of documentation in German, where they also give some start lengths for the radials. Also, a useful formula l [m] = 54 / f [MHz] is provided.

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