I have some elbows, I'll throw one on and see if it makes a difference. Most times I feel like the bulkhead is pointing right at me when I'm using the antenna and the elbow wouldn't do much. One way to find out! Thanks for watching!
OK, I ended up printing quite a few of these so that I could dial in my printer for PETG. Today I got my order of the same type of wire that you used, so I was able to build one. Did the typical 49:1 unun on a stacked pair of FT37-50 cores and a 150 pF cap parallel to the low-Z side. Cut a wire to 66 ft and trimmed it up to a nice match on 40/20/15/10. Works great, thanks! My only small suggestion would be you might want to make the wire holes just a tiny big bigger, as it was a tight fit to get the 24 AWG silicone wire in there. I'll post a make on Printables and have a small commentary on it on my next Substack post.
Beautiful, thank you for the feedback. I'll widen the strain relief holes and drop a V2 on printables. How much power are you pushing through the stacked FT37s? I think I have some that I bought not realizing how small they were that never left the original packaging.
@@CoaxAndCampstools I wasn't planning on doing more than 5 watts, but I haven't even made a QSO on it yet, just swept it with the antenna analyzer. I think 5 watts should be OK, but it might need a size a bit bigger, not sure yet.
@@CoaxAndCampstools There's a couple of popular EFHW unun kit that I'm pretty sure use one FT50-43 core, and advertises as good for 5 watts CW, so a double-stacked core of the same type is probably just fine.
If I understand right the capacitor is to bring the upper bands (6m) in to the ham band. Somewhere i thought I learned that capacitors tend to fail shorted so having 2 in series can offer a level of protection. I have not been able to identify that though. de ki7cia 73
Interesting. Maybe that's why I never really noticed a difference only looking at where the 10 meter dip fell. I'll have to take a look at the 6 meter dips the next time I'm playing around with it. Thanks!
Hmm... That will either put more bulk there causing more stress on that joint (because it hits more stuff), or it will help keep everything in place and prevent joint fatigue over time. I'm not sure, but that seems like a good idea to try. Now I just need to find a glue gun, lol.
Nice find! A right angle connection for the bnc would be nice.
I have some elbows, I'll throw one on and see if it makes a difference. Most times I feel like the bulkhead is pointing right at me when I'm using the antenna and the elbow wouldn't do much. One way to find out! Thanks for watching!
Thanks, have printed one in PETG and it looks good! Will try to build one soon and try it out. 73 DE NT7S
Cool to hear someone making something you came up with. Let me know how it works for you, or if the design needs a tweak. Thanks for watching!
OK, I ended up printing quite a few of these so that I could dial in my printer for PETG. Today I got my order of the same type of wire that you used, so I was able to build one. Did the typical 49:1 unun on a stacked pair of FT37-50 cores and a 150 pF cap parallel to the low-Z side. Cut a wire to 66 ft and trimmed it up to a nice match on 40/20/15/10. Works great, thanks! My only small suggestion would be you might want to make the wire holes just a tiny big bigger, as it was a tight fit to get the 24 AWG silicone wire in there.
I'll post a make on Printables and have a small commentary on it on my next Substack post.
Beautiful, thank you for the feedback. I'll widen the strain relief holes and drop a V2 on printables. How much power are you pushing through the stacked FT37s? I think I have some that I bought not realizing how small they were that never left the original packaging.
@@CoaxAndCampstools I wasn't planning on doing more than 5 watts, but I haven't even made a QSO on it yet, just swept it with the antenna analyzer. I think 5 watts should be OK, but it might need a size a bit bigger, not sure yet.
@@CoaxAndCampstools There's a couple of popular EFHW unun kit that I'm pretty sure use one FT50-43 core, and advertises as good for 5 watts CW, so a double-stacked core of the same type is probably just fine.
If I understand right the capacitor is to bring the upper bands (6m) in to the ham band. Somewhere i thought I learned that capacitors tend to fail shorted so having 2 in series can offer a level of protection. I have not been able to identify that though. de ki7cia 73
Interesting. Maybe that's why I never really noticed a difference only looking at where the 10 meter dip fell. I'll have to take a look at the 6 meter dips the next time I'm playing around with it. Thanks!
Great video! Would some hot glue on the bnc connection alleviate some of the concern about the durability?
Hmm... That will either put more bulk there causing more stress on that joint (because it hits more stuff), or it will help keep everything in place and prevent joint fatigue over time. I'm not sure, but that seems like a good idea to try. Now I just need to find a glue gun, lol.