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It is a variation of the G5RV. Brian Austin, ZS6BKW, took the Louis Varney G5RV “garden antenna” and reimagined it using EZNEC software. Louis Varney was looking for a 2:1 on 20m from an antenna that would fit in his small backyard. His design baked for open wire feeder coupled to 72-Ohm coax. It was never intended for any band other than 20m. Louis was happy with a 2:1 SWR because for a tube type transmitter, a 2:1 is acceptable. NI4L reimagined Brian Austin’s reimagining. He found that 420-Ohm window line from the Wireman achieves a very acceptable SWR for 40m, 20m, 17m, 12m, and the upper, FM, portion of 10m. The rest of 10m, plus 15m, 30m, 60m, and 80m can be used effectively with a wide-range antenna matching unit. I do it myself. The ZS6BKW is in the Doublet family. I have a 160m Doublet Antenna System. It rivals a Yagi but I cannot rotate it. The NI4L version of the ZS6BKW rivals my 160m Doublet Antenna System. The 70 feet of coax for the NI4L ZS6BKW is non-negotiable. He warns about it on his website.

I have an FT3DR. I’m very pleased with it. There are videos about it here on UA-cam. I’m afraid the ID-880H is already spoken for. I’m donating it.

There might be a strict timeline when it relates to emergency communications or air traffic control. But for amateur radio, apparently not. If you file a complaint with the FCC, you will not hear from them for 3 months. And all they do is turn your complaint over to the ARRL. The ARRL was useless the first time I filed a complaint, but the last time they referred me to W4DD, a local ham who sniffs out RFI. He is retired from Verizon and sniffs out RFI as a hobby. He wrote RFI Mapping software. There is a video all about in the HF Band Noise/RFI playlist here on my channel. W4DD did all the legwork to prove the RFI was from 5 different power poles. He took photos if the specific hardware issues and showed the RFI on a map, using screenshots from his sniffer software. It still took months to get someone at the power company to finally respond and send a crew out here to perform the repairs. Even then, W4DD had to resort to calling in a favor from a manager he knew at the power company. It was a total of 2 years to finally get it fixed. The video is at this link: ua-cam.com/video/TpcUUzMh-bI/v-deo.htmlsi=DDMylWE-uiELkRHu

It’s an amateur radio transceiver. It cannot be used for business use. If you have a valid Amateur Radio Technician class license or higher, you could carry it at work for normal amateur use, but you cannot use it to sell, dispatch, etc., related to your business.

It was very thoughtful of Jonathan to provide the FTM-500D. I can’t afford to go out and buy all these radios. I mainly focus on operating techniques, antennas, portable ops, microphones, menu optimizations, noise abatement, etc. But if someone sends me a radio, I will shoot some videos. Joel, KC4WZB, made the FTdx10, IC-7300, FT-991A, and FTdx101MP videos possible. Wendell has enabled me to cover the FTM-400XDR and Jonathan has enabled me tome to cover the FTM-500D.

Thank you, Wendell! You and Jonathan have helped this so channel with substantive support.

Thank you, Roy! I truly could not do this without the generosity of the Patreon team members. 73, Doug

Yessir. It matches the way the spot clusters work. I asked for top-down scrolling and Zoom in the same email. Zoom got shot down, but was later added.

That’s great. I bought a spare display module for mine. I wonder how DXE got those? Old stock maybe?

Ha!

No. I know better. It needs more than capacitive coupling to the body, for counterpoise. I think I pointed that out in one of the videos in this series. Also, I don’t want to put a $400 antenna in harms way. It might get torn up by a low hanging tree limb. That already happened to two of my ham sticks.

@@n4hnhradio I’m sorry if I offended. I meant just using it stationary, not driving around. To see if the car roof gave better performance My apologies for not clarifying.

I wasn’t offended. I was just explaining that I knew better than to try the magnetic mount. The magnet doesn’t provide adequate coupling to the vehicle body, for counterpoise. Remember that the ATAS-120A, or just about any mobile HF antenna, is only half of the antenna. The other half is the vehicle body. My magnetic mount was always a compromise. Not because I wasn’t willing to drill a hole in the roof, but because of the stability needed to support a 6-7 ft. Ham Stick on the roof. The triple magnet provides the stability, but it doesn’t provide the direct bond of the shield to the vehicle body. The counterpoise is therefore compromised. This adversely affects the SWR/performance, especially at the lower frequencies. I had to use an ATU even with the Ham Sticks. For example, the lack of direct coupling limited the useable SWR range of my 40m Ham Stick to around 40kHz. And even with that, the lowest SWR achieved without the FC-50 was 1.5:1. People who use an ATAS-120A often report that they had to install numerous grounding straps to the frame, even when they install with a direct bond of the shield to the vehicle. The bond needs to get to the frame. I haven’t had that issue with my mount. My bracket connects to an existing bolt that has a good connection to the frame.

@@n4hnhradio Thank you for the help. Sincerely! I am planning on buying the antenna with an FT-891. My idea was to use it with a mag mount stationary, not driving around. I thought that would work better. I am a newbie to HF. I have been doing UHF/VHF for about six years and getting ready to venture into HF. I live in an apartment so that is not an option so a mobile set up is what I’m going to be doing. Just trying to figure out the best compromise. I truly appreciate your help. kg7bgm

You might be okay with a magnetic mount for the higher frequencies. Even my 10 and 17m Ham Sticks worked okay with the magnetic mount. As I have said before, the lower frequencies are less forgiving when it comes to counterpoise. You could connect a ground strap to the frame of the vehicle to improve the counterpoise while operating. Why not consider mounting it like I did? Sure, my signal isn’t a perfect circular pattern. I have a stronger signal toward the front left of my vehicle, as expected, since the antenna is mounted on the front left fender. It represents approximately 2 S-units difference versus the signal from/to the right rear, and 1 S-unit difference versus the signal from/to the left and right of the vehicle. That’s okay. I can aim my truck. One of the S9 (VIP) members who helps bring these videos to you is a prolific POTA activator. He uses an FT-891 and an ATAS-120A mounted on the front left fender. He turns the truck to favor a specific direction.

Resourceful. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Mine were diseased.

@@n4hnhradio i understand. Sorry. Trees are a wonderful gift. Could anything have been done or is it that once diseased there’s nothing that can be done? If you addressed that question sorry if I missed it. Makes me think I need to call a tree surgeon to check mine out.

I saw white spits around the lower portion of the truck of both trees. The arborist said they would die. One died and the other was dying. It was less expensive to remove both at once. The disease appears to have been cankers.

I like Jim. He has a great channel.

Glad it was helpful!

It is CW. It is skywave. The point of the video is the 470Hz heterodyne. Possibly from a station on a frequency 470Hz away tuning, or more probably, a local source. I’ve had it before. Could be from a baby monitor.

???

Yes, I explain in some of my videos, and I wrote an article about that on my Patreon site. It’s in the Technical collection, on the Collections page. It isn’t anything to be concerned about.

I am glad to have the antennas back up. The limbs were too small for them to climb on to install a pulley, but the Dacron rope is strong enough. I just need to give it a tug once a month to be sure the limb doesn’t start to grow around it.

My email isn’t public. Annual S9 Patreon members can message me via the Patreon messenger for Q&A and consultation.

No significant difference with the Doublet but the ZS6BKW is better, at the expense of the SWR. The SWR of the ZS6BKW is worse on the 20m band now. I now have to touch it up on the lower end of the 20m band whereas it needed no antenna match for 20m before. I attribute this to the fact that it is no longer an inverted V. The tree guy removed my rope on one end without telling me. I had already lowered the middle but the wanted the rope and wire on one side completely on the ground. He said he would put it back up. When he put it back, he threw his bag so high that it made that side of the antenna completely horizontal. The other side is still angled downward, for inverted V. So I have a combination flat top and V.

I’m glad you find it helpful, Wendell. Curt told meme about this software.

If I lose these, I guess I will have to resort to a mast pole or beg my neighbor to use one of his trees to support the high end of an EFHW.

If the trees that are supporting them now die, I’m in trouble. There are no others on my 1/3 acre that are suitable.

So far so good with the new locations. But the limbs are too small for them to install a pulley. It’s just Dacron rope thrown over the limb. The Dacron rope is tough though. I just tug on it once a month to make sure the limb isn’t growing around it. That happened to me before I had pulleys installed. If these two trees die, I’m out of antenna trees.

Make sure you use the correct tone.

@@n4hnhradio Well, I thought I was, but I might have been in error.

You’re very welcome, Wendell.

Ladder line exhibits very low loss, versus coax. A 4:1 BalUn can transform the impedance to a low enough value that an antenna matching unit can match it to the radio. I’ve covered this in numerous videos. Watch the videos in my Doublet Antenna System playlist.

@@n4hnhradio ok thanks, learned a lot from your channell,

@frankswl I’m glad to help.

I don’t own an FTdx1200. When I was choosing my retirement radio in 2019, I looked at the FTdx1200 and its big brother, the FTdx3000D. Actually, I spent hours with every radio at Ham Radio Outlet’s demo bench. I originally walked in to buy a Kenwood TS-990S. But I ultimately chose the FTdx5000MP. The FTdx1200 is a good radio. I liken the receiver to be more on par with the FT-891. While the FTdx1200 looks similar to the FTdx3000D, it is very different on the inside. The FTdx3000D uses a dual-conversion superheterodyne architecture with a 1st IF of 9MHz. The FTdx1200 uses a triple-conversion superheterodyne architecture with a 1st IF of 40.455MHz. This IF makes it cost-prohibitive to include roofing filters for CW. The 3kHz SSB roofing filter can be used for CW, in conjunction with the IF DSP width control, which can digitally filter down to 50Hz. This is all very similar to the FT-891. The FT-891 does a great job in CW mode, using the 3kHz roofing filter and the DSP. There is one noteworthy difference between the FTdx1200 and the FTdx3000D. The FTdx1200 uses the same Texas Instruments DSP as the FTdx5000MP and the FTdx3000D. The FT-891 uses the same DSP as the FTdx101, FTdx10, and FT-991A. All of the Yaesu transceivers for the past 10-15 years have very similar features. So you can watch videos for one and apply what you learn to another. Much of the operating techniques I teach in my 700+ videos can even be used for other brands of radios.

You should! 10m FM is fun. I like the simplex operation as well as the repeater operation.

The doublet has gain at this frequency similar to a 3-element Yagi. I just cannot rotate my doublet. But the ZS6BKW (also in the doublet family) had the best lobe to Ontario.

@@n4hnhradio Cool!

I shot a video a long time ago that showed diversity RX with horizontal and vertical antennas.

I’ve never owned a tower or an amateur radio beam. I couldn’t even afford the radios that I repaired when I was a Motorola technician. $1,200 to $2,200 HTs in the 1980s.

You’re welcome! 73

Thanks, Wendell!

I agree! I have had a fulfilling 42 years thus far, without breaking the bank. No tower, no beam. But great wire antennas. And finally, as of my 2019 purchase of the FTdx5000MP, a great radio.

The menu system in the FT-891 isn’t horrible. But I hardly ever touch it anymore. I use the memory tune method that I showed in one of my videos. I have to grab the manual to tweak my ICOM 2m/70cm mobile rig. That’s a terrible menu system.

You’re very welcome! But I must give credit to the Patreon team members who make these videos possible.

You are welcome! I’m glad you liked. I teach operating techniques and radio communications principles. There are over 50 playlists here, plus N4HNHradio.com and Patreon.com/N4HNH.

We are definitely a small dedicated community. The main focus is practical operating tips.

It’s actually free if you have a platform that can run it. Or you can install to your PC. I posted the link for that in the description. Or you can buy the Inovato Quadra, and you only need to supply a mouse, monitor, and keyboard. Or, for a faster unit, there is the HF Clock Raspberry Pi, from Veritium. Link in the description. You supply a mouse, monitor, and keyboard.

Video #97 in the FTdx10 collection covers it. And thanks for helping keep the channel up. Lost 6 members this month. Your support is crucial. You are recognized in several videos. Maybe more than several.

Hi Jerry! Not a list. I have covered them in several videos, in the various radio collections. Look for videos with something about HF FM Repeaters in the title. Here is a link to one in the FTdx5000MP playlist: ua-cam.com/video/DtzSRjn7cAc/v-deo.htmlsi=Mamre4XnV5FrSjyE