Amateur Radio

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A Lemmy Community to share links about and for amateur (ham) radio to advance the technology, and promote communication and international goodwill. This community IS NOT for CB, GMRS, MURS, FRS, etc topics unless they are related to ham radio in some way.

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Antenna suggestions for Xiegu G90 / JS8Call (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello all!

I’m trying to get my foot in the door with HF digital and looking for antenna suggestions using FT8/JS8Call with a Xiegu G90.

I have ~60 ft if space in the backyard to work with & live on the second story looking down into the yard (~20ft up).

I’d ideally like something portable I can pack up and take around with me camping. I’m leaning towards a random length wire right now, but would love to hear what you come up with!

Thanks in advance!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If you don't have trees and want an easy, portable solution. Buy a $20 20 foot "crappie" fishing pole on your favorite online retailer, and run a 20m 1/4wave vertical wire up it. Add between 4 and 8 radials on the ground, and craft up a simple guy system with some rope and tent pegs. Cheap, lightweight, and highly effective, especially at this point in the solar cycle. Cut some shorter wires for higher bands and you can pick and choose which one to hoist on a given outing. The only downside is that right now, specifically js8call activity is still heavily on 40m. You will make boatloads of ft8 contacts on 20 though.

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