[BVARC] HF antenna and coax

[Venkata Appala]

Thanks Chris. Excited to be a part of the hobby and learn something new.

Thanks for the coax suggestion. I will check the 8U cable. I am guessing I would need somewhere in the 50-75 ft length to make sure I can feed it into the room.

Venkata Appala
pradhanavs at gmail.com



> On Aug 6, 2023, at 9:25 PM, Chris Medlin via BVARC <bvarc at bvarc.org> wrote:
> 
> Firstly, welcome to the hobby. 
> 
> Secondly, I dont know anything about this antenna except for what I just read on dx engineering. But 17ft is quarter wave on 20m. 
> 
> Maybe someone can give you better info on the antenna…
> I can say, if you are wanting to setup when you want to run hf and then tear down when youre done, thats exactly what i did for the 3 years i was in austin (prior to my move to houston in 2022). I had 100 ft of RG8U and i just ran it thru my townhouse and out the door (the door closes over it fine) to my antenna and when I was done, I disconnected and rolled my coax back up and never had a problem. 
> 
> If youre running 50-100 ft, I dont see a reason why youd need to spend the extra money on the LMR coax. The loss is negligible, if any. 
> 
> Good luck. 
> 73/Chris/AC5CM
> 
> Typos brought to you by iPhone
> 
>> On Aug 6, 2023, at 20:21, Venkata Appala via BVARC <bvarc at bvarc.org> wrote:
>> 
>>  Hello all,
>> I am working on setting up a temporary HF antenna that I can setup or take down when not in use. For this, I am exploring MFJ 1979 telescope antenna. I am not sure if this is the right choice yet. My idea was to use some mount(yet to figure this out) in the backyard, run the cable inside the home when I want to use HF. In addition, when I am visiting some park, planning to mount if using some mag mount. I don’t have much of a backyard and wanted to see if this antenna can be used at home and when I am visiting places. With this info, I have few questions. Please bear with me as I am absolutely new to Ham and might ask dumb questions. While reading, one thing I realized is that, the antenna depends on the bands I wish to use. Well, at the moment, I want to start with something that can get me on air for commonly used frequencies where I can listen in and learn how to use the radio. At the  moment, all I have is a HF transceiver with builtin tuner.
>> 
>> 1) Is 1979 a good antenna? It appears it is around $70 and I am assuming this can get me started without breaking any bank.
>> 2) Coax…looking at the options, this seems like a candy store and I can’t figure out which one. I am guessing something around 50 ft in length might work and my limited research shows LMR 240 might be good option. Is this true or should I find a better alternative?
>> 3) Any suggestions on mounts for the antenna that I can use in the backyard?  
>> 
>> Ps: Thank you to Ed and Richard for pointing me in the right direction at Fulshear farmer’s market. I am also researching on end fed antenna but this will be a build/diy project.
>> 
>> Thank you for all the guidance and suggestions.
>> 
>> 73
>> Venkata Appala KJ5BVS
>> pradhanavs at gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ________________________________________________
>> Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club
>> 
>> BVARC mailing list
>> BVARC at bvarc.org
>> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
>> Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/ 
> ________________________________________________
> Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club
> 
> BVARC mailing list
> BVARC at bvarc.org
> http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
> Publicly available archives are available here: https://www.mail-archive.com/bvarc@bvarc.org/ 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.bvarc.org/pipermail/bvarc_bvarc.org/attachments/20230806/7fcb1e59/attachment.htm>