CB handhelds, why so expensive.

[NMPEL]

At 16 mins

[PaulBritInHolland]

I have the Quansheng TK-11(8) for a couple of days now. Like the Baofeng-UV25 it is 10W on 2m - when comparing the two, the Baofeng signal had a slightly higer s-meter reading and sounded a bit better than the Quansheng (according to one person I had a QSO with).

I had a chat with someone on 11m FM - he was 1.5KM from me, on the 4th floor using a half-decent antenna and I was on the 2nd floor using a telescopic antenna sticking out of my bedroom window - he was receiving me S9.

[scanhermit]

Finally managed to solder the plugs onto the T2LT and the feedline. I made a hash of soldering the first plug so that I had to clean it up with a small metal file. But it works - the multimeter shows continuity.

The second plug went a bit better with a little bit of cleaning up. The plug onto the antenna was the cleanest of all. Old hands would probably grimace even at that one but I have continuity through the feed line and also from the plug to the braid and centre of the antenna.

I stupidly stepped on the swr meter which I stupidly left on the floor. The calibration knob and the dial are the both held on by a bolt and a small nut. That bolt was partly threaded at the top but by careful maneuvering I managed to get it all back together again, but I will have to handle it carefully so that it doesn't become dislodged again. I hooked up the handheld and the coax to it and quickly did a power test. Thankfully, it works but I have a feeling that I will be buying another one before too long.

I will swr the antenna tomorrow evening and if all is good, I'll tape up the choke and stick some heat shrink on the middle of the antenna.

[scanhermit]

I was going to go out to some field but it's gone up in the garden. I need to work on my POTA-craft as much as anything else. Lesson 1: tape or clip the wire every couple of three sections or the pole just bends over at the top.

I cut the wire for 27.48, halfway between the EU and UK bands then left 30mm extra for trimming down. Without trimming. It's 1:1.1 on EU 1-40 and 1:1.7 on UK 40. It looks like I won't have to do much to get it nicely across the bands.

On full power it's showing 4 watts so I guess the radio itself is not the reason I've had little fun on the stock antenna.

[scanhermit]

I got UK40 to 1:1.5 by bending the end but got no further due to fiddliness. Taking the pole up and down several times resulted in line tangling and the awkward removal of gummy electricians tape. Then I let go of the pole top section and it slid all the way down and I had to do a total takedown to retrieve it etc....

I obviously need a smoother setup technique. Some sort of clips or quick-release tie wraps to fasten the T2LT to the pole that will hold it firmly but be quick remove.

I'll have another go tomorrow or the weekend.

[Mudslinger]

It sounds like you are getting on top of it.

I would be interested to see how you get on with the performance of it. The one I made had roughly 1 s-point worse performance to local contacts compared to a cheap end fed silver rod in the same location. Whether that was because of how I made it, quality of coax etc I am not sure.

Compared to a Sirio GPE27 5/8 there was about 2 s-points difference.

[scanhermit]

Aye, I wouldn't expect it to equal either of those twigs. It's just something that I can take on a hill top or put up in the garden. One chap told me that dipoles (and what is a T2LT but an end fed dipole?) don't have much gain but they are simple and just work. I've seen vids where hams have worked stations thousands of miles away with them - I certainly don't expect anything like that but I hope to get decent local results from high points with it.

[scanhermit]

The mag mount and handheld telescopic came yesterday. At lunch I went to the top of a hill with the telescopic and had a go. No luck with TX - I could hear some blokes who, judging by a location they mentioned on a previous earwig, are 10-16 miles away. Of course I couldn't break in but switching between stock and telescopic, one guy did go up two S points. I'll try it again when I know my usual contacts are on.

[Mudslinger]

They may well have high noise floors where they are, or have set high squelch etc to talk between themselves.

I could hear stations 30 miles or so away on mine up the local hill, but no chance of getting back as they were probably also running a few extra watts...

[scanhermit]

Aye, occasional contacts of mine on the TX have a noise floor between S3 and S4. Big twigs in a city.

[scanhermit]

Okaaayyy, the T2LT is cut for 27.8 (2.59m per quarter wave element). SWR goes

EU1: 1.1
EU40 1.3
UK1: 1.4
UK40: 1.7

I know I sound like a 4 year old but if I want to equalise SWR between EU1 and UK 40 I need to reduce the length?

[Mudslinger]

Yes you need to make it a bit shorter. You can fold over the top wire rather than cut it if you are not sure.

[scanhermit]

Thanks, just wanted someone to confirm I'm on the right track. I started folding on my last attempt but it seemed that I was bending the top shorter than the bottom section and I worried that it would change the resistance by moving the radiating point off centre, so I cut equal bits of inner and outer, until dusk fell, which is when I checked the measurements.

Inner (top part) is now 2.58m and the outer (lower part) is 2.565m, so I've gone wrong somewhere. SWR is now

EU1: 1.1
EU40: 1.2
UK1: 1.3
UK40: 1.5

So I'm still going in the right direction, but the antenna is now shorter (5.145) than what I calculated for resonance at 27.48 (5.186). Given that my pole is 5.7m the choke is only half a metre off the ground so I'm thinking that may affect the SWR'd length.

If I get the SWR sweet across the two bands I guess I shouldn't worry too much about the length. Sorry - brain dump!

[Mudslinger]

Are you tuning the antenna in free space? The presence of buildings I found tends to mean the antenna ends up shorter than you would think.

I don't think it matters if the top is shorter than the bottom or vice versa, the overall length of the two halves together is what really matters, as long as you are not miles out.

[scanhermit]

It's in my garden. There's four meters to the bungalow wall and the same to the back fence on one axis, then 3 metres each way to the garage wall and side fence.

I suppose I need to find an open space where there aren't dog walkers or anyone who will pester me about what I'm doing.