The Force of Destiny

It does not seem to be so long ago that I was saying on this blog that I had downgraded my 6m antenna to a half wave vertical so that I could put up my best 4m yagi antenna. I wanted to reach 50 DXCC on 70MHz. It was 4 April in fact.

The vertical has died on me. It seems to be that the RF socket and it's connection have corroded. As this is an integral part of the antenna it is not simple to replace. In fact a close inspection revealed that the loading coil at the bottom and the gamma-match are also corroded. Ah, the joys of living near the coast.

The reference to the force of destiny is of course to "La forza del destino", the opera by Giuseppe Verdi. Being an Italian opera it is a bit more complex than my issues (really?), as it involves all sorts of misery, sword duels to the death and general angst. I recall it mostly for the score which provided the musical soundtrack to two brilliant movies - Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. Mournful and yet rather scary, Verdi's main theme adds drama to the films, and the many rip-off TV commercials which followed.

Anyway, the force of destiny has affected my antenna choice. It turns out that when I compared my knee to a cronked VFO gearbox I was not far from the truth. Oiling the bearings will not work - I need a full replacement knee gearbox. At the moment it is metal to metal contact down there.

I'll get over it, but for now the knee limits what I can do. As soon as the 6m vertical stopped working I realised how difficult it would be to work on it. I would need to stand on a ladder. It find it hard enough to walk to the ladder, never mind climb it. Of course, I had to limp my way through it.

I used the vertical antenna to work on 50MHz and listen on 70MHz. The only way out of this is either to fix it - a tricky prospect - or put back up some sort of 6m beam. The pressure to have my best 4m antenna up has passed. Thanks to working Cyprus and finally Market Reef I have passed that milestone. So maybe putting back my big dual band 4m/6m yagi was the only way to go. But for that I would need two runs of coax, one for each band.

Somehow I managed to put back the extra run of coax which that beam will need. Then I thought about the antenna, the size of it, the work to put it together and get it back up, and I knew that the game was up. No chance. With such a heavy antenna I could never manage it. I will leave that until I have got my knee working again, which could be a long time.

So a compromise is my destiny. It is a necessity, simply because I cannot do heavy work right now. So in place of the 6m vertical went my old 5/8ths ring base vertical for 70MHz. Just like I was using the 6m one to listen on 4m, I am now using the 4m one to listen on 6m. This works very well for reception.

For my main antenna I have managed to put up my old Vine 4m/6m dual band beam with a single feed. This antenna is not the greatest on either band. It has the key advantages that it is strong, easy to put together and a lot lighter than the huge dual feed alternative. It is also shorter with less windage and thus I used to put it up every winter. I did a lot of thinking about how I would cope with the SO239 socket as the cable has an N-type on the end. I hate RF adapters, especially outdoors. Eventually I discovered that I had changed the antenna over to an N-type socket years ago. If I read this blog I might have known that.

Antennas at GM4FVM, 2,4 and 6m in the foreground, then 4m vertical and 70 and 23cm in the distance.

Destiny has forced me to make this compromise. Better to be operating in a less than perfect way than not operating at all.

My 6m capacity is much improved, and my 4m capacity is reduced. How much, maybe a few decibels. I feel it though.

I really rate the 70MHz PowABeam which I took down to make this change. However, if I had not changed I could not transmit on 50MHz at all. I have a better dual band antenna than the Vine but I can hardly lift it and certainly not carry it, so my destiny is to have it this way. 

As a farewell to my splendid 70MHz PowABeam (it only went into the garage Jim) here is what I have worked on 4m since my last posting on 12 June ...

Stations worked on 70MHz at GM4FVM 13 June to 10 July 2022.

94 QSOs, 21 DXCC, 64 squares. Plus completing the all-time 50 DXCC. That 5 element 70MHz PowABeam certainly works well, in fact so does the 50MHz version which is .. also in the garage. No room for two now but at least I am operating on 50MHz again, and with a beam.

The eagle-eyed amongst you may spot G4KUX on the map who I worked during a very short but powerful aurora on 10 July. A huge signal from 135km away being scattered back to me via an aurora perhaps 500 - 1000km to the north.

So I have struggled to run another co-ax line to the mast and not used it. I wonder what I can do with that? HF perhaps? Anything that I can lift and carry, and which will not fall apart from the jolting of my limping gait.

Am I destined to use only wire antennas?

The Force of Destiny - looks like a bundle of laughs (Image Wikimedia Commons)

73

Jim

GM4FVM