VE6AB Mobile Ops
VHF Radio Wave Bending
With the sun pointing the way on the second day of the ARRL 2018 January VHF contest, early morning finds my mobile set up out on the snow covered plains of southeastern Alberta.
With conditions seemingly favorable for making long distant VHF contacts, I was hoping that the signals would bend in their travels, allowing propagation on VHF to travel further than the normal line of sight contacts during the contest on this day.
Taking up a position in the sky is the Mag Gain Systems push-up mast located on the 12 volt rotator at the rear of my mobile.
Up top on the mast is my tri-band LPDA (log-periodic) antenna built in my workshop covering the bands of 2 meters, 1 1/4 Meters, and 3/4 meters.
I also have my 6 meter loop antenna along that will be positioned on the mast as well, before the mast is raised to the operating height.
With the temperature sitting at -7 Celsius, I am operating from the interior of my mobile, although I had hoped for temperatures mirroring the double digit+ temperatures we had experienced earlier in the week, that would have allowed me to operate my FT-897D outside of my mobile.
So instead, I have my FT-897D sitting on the console beside the radio-stack located in my mobile, with the coax cables run through the open tailgate to the front operating position.
Expand the photo for a closer look.....
Exposing the LPDA for what it does best.....
http://www.jerryclement.ca/MachineShop/Antenna-Werks/i-5x9k3Gr
