Operating FM

[VK2VEL]

What's the best freq to listen for 6m FM activity? 52.525mhz?

I'd like to see what is around 6m FM with my VX-5 from work this season.

[VK2VEL]

Out of left field - has anyone ever run the tape antenna from a PRC-77 set through an antenna analyzer?

It just occurred to me that the centre band of a PRC-77(30-75mhz) is 6m - so it should make a reasonable antenna for a VX-5 for some portable hill topping or something.

A quick check of VSWR, it seems to be much the same as that of a Diamond triband knock off or the supplied Yaesu antenna, so it can't be that bad...

[VK2OMD]

Out of left field - has anyone ever run the tape antenna from a PRC-77 set through an antenna analyzer?

It just occurred to me that the centre band of a PRC-77(30-75mhz) is 6m - so it should make a reasonable antenna for a VX-5 for some portable hill topping or something.

A quick check of VSWR, it seems to be much the same as that of a Diamond triband knock off or the supplied Yaesu antenna, so it can't be that bad...

I am not familiar with the antenna you mention. But I think I understand the purpose and environment for which it was designed.

What material is the tape made from? If it was steel, then it will be quite lossy compared to copper or aluminium.

VSWR is a very limited perspective. A lossy antenna doesn't necessarily cause high VSWR, rather the reverse that loss in an antenna system often reduces VSWR.

The next question is the pattern, is it well suited to 6m DX? The fact you are talking about hill topping means you want to exploit a low angle path, but is the major lobe of this antenna at a low angle?

Owen

[VK7HDX]

In my shack I have an old AWA RT-85 with a simple steel whip on top of the roof (with a flat SWR on 52.525MHz) and its always on monitoring away in the background for any traffic. Last season I worked a lot of FM stations just by sitting on that frequency. The AWA has a final output of 5w only but when the band is open I can see why they call it the magic band. Sure its not a power station but its only a monitoring unit and if I need a bit more juice I jump on the main rig.

73... Karl
VK7HDX

[VK2VEL]

Owen and Karl, thanks for the comments. It's not a DX antenna, and I'm not intending to work DX with it - just thinking of experimenting to see if I can use it to improve on the existing antenna on the handheld. It is laying around doing nothing, so I thought why not play around with it.