It's a new world out there ...

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  • Updated 3 years ago
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I invited a new friend to coffee this morning. He's been a ham since the 60's, and much like me, has a shack filled with most everything Collins and Drake ever manufactured. Good olde boat anchors, lots of tubes, and great fun on AM to this day. We finished our java and headed for the shack and he asked 'So, what do we have here?'. I proudly replied 'My new Flex 6500 displaying my favorite bands'. I could see Steve wasn't tuning in. 'Oh .. I just don't get it. That's the CW portions of each band?'.

'No .. that is the entire spectrum of 80-meters, 40-meters, 20-meters, and 15-meters. And later it will be chock-full of signals'.

'Say what?'

'The entire band spectrum .. and if you want another cup of coffee, we can bring out my Surface Pro 4 and tune the bands next to the wood stove!'

Steve: 'Do they take VISA?'

Welcome to the new world Steve ...

73's

W7NGA  dan
San Juan Island, Wa.
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W7NGA

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Posted 3 years ago

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3 years ago
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Barry N1EU

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Dan what antenna is connected to your 6500 to deliver decent signals on all those bands?

(and I assume congratulations are in order for getting the 6500 back on the air!)

73, Barry N1EU
View previous…
2016-01-08T19:41:49+00:00
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Ken - NM9P, Elmer

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Richard, it is amazing what low power can do with a good antenna.  Two examples:
1) I had a 20 minute contact from Indiana with a ZL on 20 meters one night.  I  was strong, so I turned my power down to 5 watts.  I was still pretty strong, so I turned the control down to '1' for one Watt.  I was still 55.

2) During a local round table with my club on 10 meters, I connected my antenna to the transverter output and was still 55 to stations two miles away.  I was running only 30 milliwatts out to the antenna!  Some of them could still hear me at 5 milliwatts!

Ken - NM9P
2016-01-08T19:50:32+00:00
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Richard McClelland, AA5S

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I recall when I was a novice with a trap dipole up 35 feet, there was a local ham with a 5 el 20 m yagi at 90' working the world when the band was completely dead to me.  When he finished his QSOs, I called him on CW but he couldn't hear me so I rang him on the phone and told him to turn his beam in my direction.  We had a nice QSO after that.  That experience told me the value of a decent antenna.
2016-01-10T18:12:54+00:00
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DrTeeth

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The definition of a "good antenna" to a pessimist:- a) one I cannot afford, b)one that I do not have the space to erect, c) one that the XYL will HATE and d) one I cannot get planning permission to erect. Sigh!
2016-01-10T20:59:12+00:00
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KY6LA - Howard, Elmer

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Definition of a "Good Antenna" to an Optometrist

a) One I cannot afford but I bought anyways
b) One that I donot have space for but I put it up anyways
c) The XYL will hate it so I sent her on vacation while it is being put up
d) Fortunately we have PRB-1 so the Planning Board must Reasonably Accommodate my Needs  - that's what lawyers are for....
e) if the Neighbors don't hate it then you do not have enough antennas or it is too small...
2016-01-11T15:40:34+00:00
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Dave -- W7IWW

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You're my kind of guy, Howard. The glass is half full, not empty. When I was in college at U of CO, I was told twice I could not put up a dipole on the dorm. Kept asking up the line, and three times the charm! Up went the antenna (Facilities dept actually installed it, no charge) and kept me on the air with regular schedules with my Dad and brother. Same senerio played out when stationed in Germany living in government housing.
3 years ago
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Dan -- KC4GO

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I don't know what that W7NGA  dan uses but I use one of the Comet 250B vertical all band antennas. 
Not only works for ham bands but also SWL... 

http://download.qrz.ru/pub/hamradio/antenna/comet/Comet-CHA250B-Review.pdf

http://www.cometantenna.com/amateur-radio/base-antennas/multi-band-hfvhfuhf-2/


Dan --- KC4GO
2016-01-08T16:04:10+00:00
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Lawrence Kellar KB5ZZB

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I have one....I call it my "dummy load on a stick" but it is a good receive antenna
2016-01-08T18:16:27+00:00
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Dan -- KC4GO

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I also us it for WSPR (5 watts tx) band hopping  into the 250B (Dummy load) reaches  most of the world. With the ATU no place it doesn't match. I have that and a 65 ft long wire with an SGC-230 tuner and an MFJ Magnetic Loop 7-21 Mhz. Sometime is TX on the wire and RX on the vertical. And we are most likely off topic. :) 

Dan --- KC4GO
3 years ago
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Dave -- W7IWW

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I use a Hustler 5 band vertical to monitor receive band slices (non-WARC bands) via ANT 2 (6700) while using SteppIR 3ele on Slice A via ANT 1 on active band (40-6m). Seems to work nicely.
3 years ago
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Cal Spreitzer - N3CAL

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I use the Pixel RF-Pro 1B Broadband Magnetic Loop (RX Ant) for all bands 180-10m.  The best RX antenna a Flex could have!
(Edited)
2016-01-10T21:09:03+00:00
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Steve

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I agree!
3 years ago
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Barry N1EU

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Are there any plans out there for a homebrew active vertical antenna, similar to the Clifton Labs Z1501D?  I understand Clifton Labs products are currently not available. 
2016-01-08T16:58:17+00:00
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Roy Laufer

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I believe Clifton Labs were the original designers of the Pixel Pro-1B that was recently sold to DX Engineering.

Clifton Labs do a lot of hardware and software development for companies that then produce and market them.
2016-01-09T13:17:39+00:00
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K1UO - Larry

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Barry,  I have a prototype that Lee K7TJR of HI-Z antennas came up with a few years ago  that works like the  Clifton Labs version except it had a relay to hook to the key line to cut off the preamp when transmitting.  I'm not sure if he ever developed this or not.  It was intended for use by QS1R and other Skimmer type SDR users for their RX Skimmer server antenna.
3 years ago
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Roy Laufer

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I'd love to stretch my SSDR onto all three of my connected monitors, but SSDR 1.5 seems to max out at a width of 4096 bits wide.

I hope that FRS increases SSDR's maximum width on one of these updates, just for the "show off" factor alone...
3 years ago
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Chuck

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Excellent Dan,
What size/make/model are the monitors?
What video card are you using in the PC?

73
Chuck
2016-01-09T15:20:48+00:00
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W7NGA

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Chuck, I bought a Dell i7 PC dedicated to Flex and my engineering and mathematics studies. I say that because I have had no issues at all with Windows 10. I use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 video card driving two Dell U2414H 24" monitors that were reasonably priced at Amazon. It all works marvelously well ... if I knew then how well the system worked and how much fun the panadapters are I would now seriously look at the 27" monitors.

W7NGA  dan
(Edited)
2016-01-10T13:20:36+00:00
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Chuck

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Thanks for the info Dan.
3 years ago
Photo of Dan -- KC4GO

Dan -- KC4GO

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11 meters and the rest of the HF band if you use xvtr as your transmitter...
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