Thanks to the California QSO Party, I made more than 30 QSOs this weekend running < 5 Watts with Project TouCans: a Rockmite into a Tuna Topper, both mounted inside a pineapple can with a tuna can as a covering housing and antenna mount; the entire rig resides suspended at the feed point of a half wave dipole.
First, the what : This article shows how to embed a new Google Form into any web page. To demonstrate ths, a chart and form that allow blog readers to control the recording levels of each instrument in Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is used. HTML code from the Google version of the form included on this page is shown and the parts that need to be modified are highlighted. Next, the why : Google recently released an e-mail form feature that allows users of Google Documents to create an e-mail a form that automatically places each user's input into an associated spreadsheet. As it turns out, with a little bit of work, the forms that are created by Google Docs can be embedded into any web page. Now, The Goods: Click on the instrument you want turned up, click the submit button and then refresh the page. Through the magic of Google Forms as soon as you click on submit and refresh this web page, the data chart will update immediately. Turn up the:
That’s a beautiful view with Mt. Diablo to the east. Also, a great QRP result in the CQP.
ReplyDeleteIt must be hard to really get the feed point high I would think, what with the weight of the radio/amp and the interface cable.
I think the feed point at the house is about 15 feet off the ground. Then, we've got this going for us:
ReplyDelete"For simplicity, first consider an antenna on the top of a hill with a constant slope downward. The general effect is to lower the effective elevation angle by an amount equal to the downslope of the hill. For example, if the downslope is −3° for a long distance away from the tower and the flat-ground peak elevation angle is 10° (due to the height of the antenna), then the net result will be 10° − 3° = 7° peak angle."
--from https://www.arrl.org/files/file/antplnr.pdf
The radio is also very, very light. The Rockmite itself weighs maybe two ounces. The tuna topper board is in the same boat weight-wise. The cans are also light. At one point, the Flying Rockmite was going up with 8 AA batteries attached. (See https://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-month-rockmite-ran-around-naked-in.html )
Then, there's the beauty of butcher's twine, which is pretty cheap on Amazon, surprisingly strong—except when it isn't; pine sap is its chief nemesis—and hefty enough in a spool that it's easy to throw over a tree limb on POTAs—A stick placed in the spool's cardboard tube provides launching leverage.
The final piece of the equation which hasn't been an issue strength-wise—that I ever noticed—is using 12 gauge wire in the antenna. I've seen a lot of inferences that thicker wire is less desirable, but reading through the antenna lit, the wider the conductor the more forgiving the resonant bandwidth of the antenna. I personally noticed an increase in output power when I moved to the heavier gauge from 20 gauge. Whether that increase is a property of the reduced impedance on the real axis, or just that the Rockmite was particularly—and randomly—to benefit from the small change in feed point impedance, I don't know.
Finally, getting back to the angle of the hill thing, two more anecdote-ish notes. Dipoles on hills like to be lined up with the steepest gradient of the hill. Being cross-wise to the hill—especially on abrupt ridges—just confuses them. (I think it's because with respect to ground, being cross-wise to a ridge makes a V dipole.) More on that here: https://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2023/02/rockmite-log-20230205-flyying-rockmite.html and more slope-of-the-hill-leaning-over-the-antenna-angle here https://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2023/02/update-on-radio-mapping-baylor-peak.html
And then! What if the hill is a straight 20 meter-or-so drop within 20 meters of a 20 meter rig? Again, this was repeatable that evening, but who knows what other factors were involved. From the edge of a mesa in New Mexico, the 'flying' RockMite hit Costa Rica with the feed point eight inches off the ground. https://copaseticflow.blogspot.com/2023/04/playing-radios-at-night-twenties-and.html