Finally found time to play antenna’s on Monday gone and I can report a successful field test albeit crude and basic on the home brew bought at the recent Kempton Rally.

The test was very arbitrary and with basic equipment (MFJ analyser is on order) so used my old basic SWR meter and handheld (4W) with a lash up push up pole in the garden and undoubtedly load of loss everywhere but….. with reasonable results. I needed to try it somehow and wanted to test as if portable in a field!

It does appear that the antenna works 2M and 70cms and in fact was giving slightly better SWR results on 70.  Crude readings ranged bottom 70cms band 1:3:1 up to top 1:2:1 and on 2M bottom 1:3:1 and top 1:5:1. Receive was clear and easily picking up stations on 2M who were mobile calling in from Devises and beyond.

However…a few problems with the following means a little more work is needed to address; line loss (probably need to replace the old coax used with low loss), weak or bad feeder connection at the bottom of the J pole and the actual antenna joints need sealing but apart from that a good buy for a portable antenna. Also looks as if it was made from good quality aluminium so nice and light.

So I will be bringing the J pole along with a few long wires to the field event so need to get cracking on the repair work before that. Happy days!

73’s

Mark M6KMJ