Phew! What a night!
Finally! I found time (and motivation) to install the Beacon and get it on air.
It's operating on 6.398,5kHz.To be honest, I wasn't that motivated to spend (again) hours over hours on the roof, trying to get the best SWR. Besides the fact, that the PSU died on me when I was almost done, I also spend too many hours with finding the perfect match with the Balun and Antenna length.
I had the setup installed in my garden before. But due to it's length (almost 22m) I had trouble running the wire Dipole high enough without getting it caught in trees. Back then it got already obvious, that adjusting it will be another pain-in-the-you-know-what.
I tried to fool myself by believing it'd go easier on the roof because there's no trees around and I could work with the already installed support poles. Well, it didn't get that better. Maybe I cut the wire some centimetres too short (well, shouldn't have that much of an effect on 40m anyway) or it's just about the plain fact, that the height of 3m is just too low for the frequency. Especially since the ground is highly conductive. You remember... metal construction.
In the end I put the antenna up and down another 7 times. Until I was that annoyed that I settled with a SWR of about 2.5. Not awesome, but f** it. I got 30W so I can waste some. The SWR-Meter says FWD: 55W, REF: 10W. The Chassis where the MOSFET is mounted to stays almost cool. So. Ehh....
What annoyed me like hell (and made the night one I'll be laughing about in a few months) were those people walking around on the ruin yard. Suddenly, I heard people walking and talking in low voices. It's funny how fast a calm mind switched to paranoia mode. They were just some kiddos walking over the yard but after that every loud noise made me freeze. And, believe me, things that hardly make a noise during the day become quite loud during night. Damn, Duct Tape is pretty loud when it's been unwound. Not to mention all the animals moving in the shrubs near the roof on the ground.
Anyway! It's on air. I could already receive it on two WEB-SDRs
- - Bedfort, England: 05:45 UTC
- - Twende, Netherlands: 05:75 UTC
Greetings,
Zazzle