
Onno discusses his experience with discovering and fixing a mix-up with his antennas for amateur radio.
Foundations of Amateur Radio Recently I discovered that the antenna that I had connected to my WSPR or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter beacon was not a 40m antenna, instead, it turns out to be a 15m antenna. The how and why of that mix-up isn't particularly helpful, so instead I set out to remedy the situation. Step one was simple, go into the garage and pull out the antennas and check if I had forgotten about an 80m antenna. As it happens, I'd forgotten about a 17 megacycles antenna. At the moment I couldn't tell you if it was intended for Maritime or Amateur use, but it doesn't really matter, since I'm not permitted to use those frequencies for transmit and I was on a mission. Oh, I also discovered that you can dislodge two shelves with stuff on them by moving an antenna. Fun. So, 7 MHz, or 40m it is. The antenna mount is clamped with G-clamps to the side of a steel roofed framework that's bolted to the house. It's been there for about eight years or so. From time-to-time I change over the antenna depending on my mood. Today I wanted to move the mount and after taking it down decided that it could do with a little maintenance, least of which due to the fact that the feed-point…
Host: Onno
Organizations: WSPR
Places: garage, house, Maritime, Amateur
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