[OZAPRS] How much power do you use while HF mobile?

[Ray Wells]

Don't overlook some hardware store, welding supply stores or engineering 
works for bronze brazing rod

Ray, vk2tv

On 11/06/11 08:09, Damien Gardner Jnr wrote:
> Ahhh, if only Kmart still sold such things!  I scoured homewares, then autos, then camping - and my three possibilities were a dish drainer from homewares, a bread toaster thingy from camping, or the little fly netting thingy from camping..  If i'd had a heap of spare time, a 4mm tent peg could have been made to work, with a file ;)   But a crocheting hook, awesome!  I'll expand my search criteria a bit while I'm out around nowra this morning :)
>
> Cheers,
>
> DG
>
> On 10/06/2011, at 9:35 PM, Bob - VK5FO wrote:
>
>>
>> Years ago, we lost the tuning tip from our Terlin HF antenna.
>>
>> We went to K-Mart and bought a $2 crocheting hook from the haberdashery section.  It worked for over 10 years like that!
>>
>> So, don't dismiss the simple, cheap solutions like this :)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 10/06/2011 7:57 PM, Damien Gardner Jnr wrote:
>>> True I think - having pulled into Nowra, and (temporarily) fixed my antenna, with it lightly raining, and very overcast, I can't get a packet out even on 100W!  I even sat there for five mins turning the OT1+ on and off every 30 seconds, so it would keep sending posit packets, but not a brass razoo ended up on the APRS network!
>>>
>>> --DG
>>>
>>> On 10/06/2011, at 8:06 PM, Gordon VK4VP wrote:
>>>
>>>> Damien,
>>>> 	I usually run about 70W mobile, but there are certainly locations
>>>> where it doesn't make much difference how much power you run, you have
>>>> trouble getting in.  The band conditions are what makes the difference I
>>>> think.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Gordo VK4VP
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au [mailto:ozaprs-bounces at aprs.net.au] On
>>>> Behalf Of Damien Gardner Jnr
>>>> Sent: Friday, 10 June 2011 18:35
>>>> To: Australian APRS Users
>>>> Subject: [OZAPRS] How much power do you use while HF mobile?
>>>>
>>>> Hi Folks,
>>>>
>>>> So I dug out a spare welding rod, and made a new tip for the 30 metre whip
>>>> on the the car, so I could run HF as well as VHF while we're away this long
>>>> weekend.  Didn't last long, it disappeared somewhere through kangaroo
>>>> valley, but we did get excellent coverage all the way down till then :)
>>>> Will go hunting around nowra tomorrow and see if I can find a source of 3mm
>>>> welding rods, or (haha not a chance) 3mm stainless rod, but for now I picked
>>>> up a $4 fold-out mosquito net thingo from the camping section at kmart, for
>>>> putting over a plate..  That had about 1mm rods in it, cut it to the 152mm I
>>>> usually cut to, but it was centered about 300khz too far up the band..  cut
>>>> a new one 3cm longer, and bingo, 1.1 swr on 10.1mhz :)  Gotta say having the
>>>> LCD backlight set to go from blue to red on SWR during transmit is
>>>> absolutely fantastic - you know straight away if something's wrong!
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, my question - While i was giving the car a test-drive with the
>>>> antenna on, on thursday morning, I had my HF SSID appear on my D710 - seems
>>>> it was picked up somewhere and gated around about and ended up out on VHF
>>>> via an igate...  What did surprise me, was I still had the 857 set to 5w,
>>>> from tuning in the antenna!  Now I usually run 50w on HF, but having done
>>>> lots of playing with PSK31 and the like recently, I'm realising that power
>>>> really doesn't make a whole lot of difference on HF, and having landed in
>>>> noosa on 5w, I'm wondering if I need to be running 50W..
>>>>
>>>> Sooo - what power do folks usually run on HF APRS? :)
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Damien
>>>>
>>>> VK2TDG
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