You might want to try an Eagle One Vertical from  www.w8afx.com

Its a telescopic vertical that is 31' tall and will work 40 meters as is, but I feed mine at the base with and Icom AH4 autotuner for 10 thru 80 meter operation and it does quite well !

Another option would be a magnetic loop antennaas they are small, fairly efficient, but also fairly quiet !  Just google search magnetic loop for tons of info on building one, and MFJ even sells one already made.

Use the formula 468/freq in mhz = length in feet.  Using 3.5 mhz get you around 135', then feed that 1/3 off center (45' one side, 90' on the other) with a 4:1 balun and you have a Windom type antenna that will work several bands without a tuner !

I have some mods listed for the SW series rigs on my website at: www.angelfire.com/electronic2/qrp

Quote from: gil on September 27, 2013, 05:36:35 PM
http://betterqrp.com

QuoteA few circuit boards remain and are available for $7 shipped.

Better act fast on this one! We could do a group components buy..

This is an excellent QRP end-fed tuner. I used it during my last camping trip and wanted to get a backup. I just ordered two PCBs.

Gil.

Gang,

All sorts of plans for tuners on my website including and EFHW tuner at: www.angelfire.com/electronic2/qrp

Quote from: KK0G on October 07, 2013, 04:47:58 PM

Quote from: Lamewolf on October 07, 2013, 04:44:09 PM
Good price, but I just finished building a T-match tuner from parts I had on hand.  I had an enclosure that is almost the exact same size as my Yaesu FT-817 so it looks like it was made for the 817 and I even had room on the front panel to add a 3/8" x 24 thread antenna mount so I can put a telescopic whip on the tuner for manpack operation.  With a 6' whip it will tune 10 thru 40 meters and with an add on coil at the base of the whip it will also tune 60 & 80 meters !  Haven't made any contacts with it yet, but the weather is nice this evening, so I'll take it to the back yard and give it a try.

Sounds cool. Photos?

Here ya go with the pictures of my manpack tuner.

Quote from: RadioRay on October 31, 2013, 04:09:29 PM
OK -

I know what you mean about falling asleep.  It's been an 'interesting' couple of days here as well and 'the couch of eternal sleep' is calling loudly to me.  I'll set an alarm.  I assume we won't be wandering the streets dressed as politicians (scary - VERY scary) and might be on the radio.

60 meter band DIAL frequencies (USB) in the United States

                           1                       2                      3                     4                       5
United States    5330.5       5346.5       5357.0       5371.5       5403.5


10 pm Eastern: call on channel one. if it's already occupied, we'll use channel 5 as secondary.



de RadioRay ..._ ._

W7ASA

Sorry, fell asleep again but that was a good thing.  A storm that knocked the power off at 2 am woke me up and I couldn't go back to sleep after that.  I guess I fell asleep somewhere around 8:30 so I got around 5.5 hours sleep last night.  I'm not a night person and I get up around 5:30 every morning to get ready for work.  I arrive at work around 7am and get off at 5pm so I'm dog tired in the evenings, so maybe we should try it Saturday evening - I don't have to go to work Sunday so I could stay up later then.  I'll start monitoring channel 1 around 9pm eastern Saturday and give a few calls starting at that time.  If that channel is busy, I'll move up one at a time.

Quote from: cockpitbob on October 31, 2013, 10:49:21 AM
Can I play?  I've never heard anyone on 60M, but then I hardly ever listen there either.
With kids and Halloween tonight I can't guarantee I'll make it down to the shack, but I just set my watch as a reminder. I'm up in coastal Mass so both of you are about 600 miles away.  That seems a little far for NVIS and a little close for skip, but we'll see. :)

Sure !  Now if I can just stay awake that long this evening !  Fell asleep in the chair last night.  I'll start listening around 9pm on channel 3, and I have 2 antennas I can try, one vertical the other a multiband zepp.

Quote from: RadioRay on October 30, 2013, 08:52:50 AM
I cannot on Wednesday , but will do that on Thursday at 10 pm Eastern time.

Ray

OK, I'll listen for you on Thursday at 10 and I'll also listen this evening around 9 eastern time if someone wants to try a call for me.  My call is KC8AON

Quote from: RadioRay on October 29, 2013, 08:46:03 PM
Hey Lamewolf,


Excellent suggestion.  60m is a useful part of the spectrum, with excellent NVIS during daylight hours and fine regional use after dark.  I also find that it's not crowded, which is a real plus.  I am in coastal Virginia and if you wanted to try a test, we could probably try a night time shot.  Propagation software says that  02 GMT is a good time between you and I. Post here if you'd like to arange a test and maybe others can join in.

What time is that our time ?  Don't have my utc clock in front of me right now.  Want to try channel 3 this evening Wednesday Oct 30 3013 ?  We can move up or down if the channel is in use.


>RadioRay ..._ ._

Quote from: Archangel320420 on October 29, 2013, 07:05:00 PM
I don't have a transmitter on 5 Mhz.

Do you have an HF rig of any kind ?  Most of the HF rigs today can be modified very easy to operate on 60 meters.  For example, I run a Yaesu FT-840 and I modified it and then programmed the five 60 meter channels into the first 5 memory channels.  When I want to work 60 meters, I just hit my memory button and select a channel.  I also have an Icom 703, and 2 Yaesu FT 757s that have been modified and will work on 60.

One of my plans is to get a snow blade mounted on my tractor, and also to build and deploy a Windom type antenna I'm wanting to experiment with.  No really big projects planned - yet !

Quote from: KK0G on October 29, 2013, 10:50:29 AM

Quote from: Lamewolf on October 29, 2013, 09:20:13 AM
Use CW and a QRP radio and there will ne no need to worry about communications !  ;)

CW QRP will always be my base line, go to for never fail communication, but the advantages of basic e-mail over HF is very appealing.

I just love the idea of a complete station that will fit in a coat pocket or spare pocket on my bug out pack !  A friend recently gave me an 40 meter MFJ Cub in kit form because he wasn't interested in CW or building a kit, so I gladly built it !  I've got it, an 8 cell AA pack, small straight key, earbuds, and a lightweight dipole made from speaker wire and fed with 10' of RG174 coax, a roll of nylon masons line and a couple of large sinkers to help get the line over tree limbs all packed away in an AK47 magazine pouch that is attached to my main pack in my vehicle.  With only 10' of feedline, the dipole makes a great NVIS antenna and if I need greater range, I deploy the hot side of the dipole as a vertical or invlerted L and lay the ground side out as a counterpoise wire.  Either way, the swr is in good shape and no tuner needed !  The cub only does about 2 watts out, but I have found that 2 watts works really well with CW !

Quote from: KK0G on October 28, 2013, 10:29:48 PM
Rays thread on e-mail over radio got me to thinking (dangerous 8) ) about powering a computer of some sort when the SHTF. Obviously most all desk tops are out of the question, the lack of inputs/outputs on tablets makes them a pain in the ass, laptops are at least feasible, but my guess is that a netbook of one flavor or another might be ideal. So of course I tried my Google foo and came up with about 16 gazillion hits when I searched "low current draw netbook". The problem is two fold; first very few manufacturers publish specs on current draw and second; most of what I do find is out of date since any computing device is obsolete about 2 nano seconds after it hits the market. The Raspberry Pi sounds like a possibility but it would require at minimum a separate monitor and keyboard which is just more stuff to break, get lost, left behind etc.


So who has good intel on low power, cheap netbooks?

Use CW and a QRP radio and there will ne no need to worry about communications !  ;)

Anyone here doing anything n 60 meters ?  Not much activity there when I listen, thought it might be a good place to congregate in the evenings for a preppers round table.  What say ye ?

Lets all make it a habit to try and check channel 3 (5.357 MHz) around 7pm eastern time each evening for prepper activity !