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Ok. The radio I ordered is out of stock and will be weeks of waiting. Canceled the order. Now shopping again.
Now looking at ft-891. Any thoughts?
I totally love that radio. Itās cheap, too, for what you get. Comparable radios are over a thousand. No tuner if I recall so thatās an additional expense. Also the 857 is tempting because it gives you everything the 891 has plus VHF/UHF.
The 857 price is a little uncomfortable for me. going to gigaparts and see if they have a 891 in stock before it all goes to hell.
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Just dumped a load on Dx engineering. radio, antenna. antenna tuner , cables.
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I bought - ft-891
ldg-2-IIpro2
dmn-cp6ar
cables
power supply
Great choices. That Diamond is 15ā tall. I thought you had HOA restrictions.
I do but I think I can hide it behind the house.
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Great. I wish I could. I also plan to keep that in mind if we buy a place in Colombia, which I am seriously thinking of doing. A place to hide a ham antenna has just been added to my home-buying criteria list.
There is always the attic.
Or a long wire outside. Your tuner should make almost anything long enough a possible antenna.
Thatās a thought. Then I could return this expensive vertical (although I just like the beauty of it).
More and more Iām thinking of using random wire antenna. I wouldnāt have to drill a hole in my block wall and wouldnāt have to fear being discovered. What about whip antennas?
Antennas are all about length. A half wave whip for 80m would have to be what, 140 feet or so? Most people I know who want to do HF do random wire. One guy I know quite well got lucky and actually used the rain gutters on his balcony and got resonance. lol. Towers are ugly and not at all portable. If it hits the fan, you want your HF rig to come with you when you bug out.
There is one interesting alternative Iāll note: both Yaesu and Diamond make these small whip antennas which they claim can be resonant from about 40m to 6m. They work by changing the length of the antenna with a little motor as you change frequencies. I doubt theyāre very effective (far less effective than a nice long random wire is my guess) but they are an option.
https://www.diamondantenna.net/sd3301.html
https://www.amazon.com/Yaesu-ATAS-120A-Motorized-FT-450DandFT-897D-ATAS-120/dp/B004UM9UL4
Iām going with a long random wire. LOL at half wave whip for 80 meters.
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I should note, even though I disparage those weird motorized whips, I will probably buy one. If I had a townhouse with a roof, Iād just climb up there and run a random wire but on my high-rise balcony, I canāt even do a random wire of any decent length. I donāt expect great results with a motorized whip but I want to do HF and I hope theyāll get me on the air. Iāll probably go with the Diamond SD330 but weāll see about that when I finally get back to Canada (whenever that is).
http://www.hamuniverse.com/randomwireantennalengths.html
A good article on random wire antennas. you have to avoid half wave lengths and multiples of them.
I didnāt know that. Good info even though random wires donāt fit my current life.
I just ordered some wire. Will return vertical when it gets here. Will allow me to have rig next to computer. Everything arrives Satrurday.
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