VK2RH ham radio

Category: VHF

  • Lightweight portable VHF antennas

    One of my favourite sites is Martin DK7ZB’s collection of pages detailing the construction of practical antennas for VHF and UHF.

    I first visited the site following a link to designs for lightweight portable yagis that would be suitable for SOTA VHF activations. Under the link ‘2m/70cm-Yagis ultralight’, Martin describes a number of yagis for 2m and 70cm that use thin metre long aluminium welding rods mounted on PVC booms.

    “These Yagis are constructed with cheap lightweight materials for electric installations and you can mount and dismantle them without any tools. The boom is made of PVC-tubes with 16mm, 20mm or 25mm diameter, the element holders are the clamps for these tubes.” DK7ZB

    What makes the designs particularly attractive is that they can be quickly assembled from a compact (admittedly metre long for 2m) pack you can carry on your ascent, even designs using a 2 metre long boom.

    The components of a DK7ZB lightweight 6 element yagi suitable for SOTA or any portable operation

    The welding rods – used for TIG welding – are available in Australia in 2.8mm and 3.2mm diameters from welding supplies shops. I’m still on the lookout for 4mm diameter rods. PVC conduit and the mounting clamps are readily available in VK from hardware stores.

    I’ve managed to cut a suitable slot in the end of a 3.2mm aluminium welding rod using a Dremel with a thin cutting wheel. One suggested way of attaching the feedline to the driven element is to crimp the lines into thin slots like this.

    Also of interest to the portable operator are the J Pole designs based on Wireman 450Ω window feedline. There are dimensions for bands from 2m down to 40m. The J pole is essentially a half wavelength dipole where the high feed impedance is transformed by a quarter-wave length matching section (the tail of the J) tapped at a suitable distance to yield a 50Ω match. Follow the ‘Wireman-J-Pole’ link in the left navigation. These pages remind you that the J-pole can be configured in any way so a 40m J pole in a Zepp arrangement starts to look quite practical if you have just under 10m of 450Ω feedline available. I want to start with the 6m design and see if I can make it robust enough with heat shrink etc for portable work.

    Kits for the DK7ZB yagi designs are also available from nuxcom.de, Attila Kocis DL1NUX’s website. Both sites are in German and English.

  • Wouxun KG-UVD1P

    I’ve had my Wouxun KG-UVD1P for a few weeks. I ordered it from a Hong Kong based dealer for US$105! I also ordered a USB programming cable. The radio works well and has a very pleasant audio to listen to. However I was never able to get the original progrmming cable to work. I tried every possible way, on three different PCs and even on a Mac pretending to be a PC(!). I finally contacted the dealer who suggested sending it back to HK for a check. The airmail was probably three times the cost of the cable. In any case now a couple of weeks later, I’ve just received a new cable and best of all – it actually worked first go! Thank you to Radioshop888!

    Wouxun KG-UVD1P

    My radio works on 2m and 70cm. In fact the frequency range is quite wide, taking in UHF CB and Marine frequencies: 136-174 and 400-480Mhz. As the Wikipedia sourced photo indicates other ranges are available for other markets.

    The design and finish is probably short of the big firms, but for me it’s easier to use than my Yaesu  VX-7R even though it’s a bit fatter. It feels like a radio you’d readily grab and use. You don’t need to spend a few nights of your life getting orientated to the device’s view of the world. (That’s probably just as well given the brevity of the Wouxun’s guide). The battery is holding a charge well and all accessories including a spare battery are cheap. Full retail Yaesu replacement battery are almost what I paid for the Wouxun. I surprised how well the little 7″ (18cm) whip works.