Hey antenna wranglers and feedline fanatics – it’s time to get real about what’s swinging in your backyard. This May’s Forum Night is your chance to tell all about your antenna of choice — whether it’s big, small, stealthy, floppy, or held together by hope and cable ties.
What we want:
Your favourite antenna (or the one you tolerate)
The good (DX glory),
The bad (SWR horror stories),
And the downright ugly (we’ve seen things…).
Dipoles, verticals, loops, Yagis, fractals, coat hangers — no judgement, just good stories, laughs, and maybe some inspiration or sympathy.
Bring your tales, your pictures, your bent aluminium, and let’s share what’s working (or not) at your QTH. No PowerPoint perfection needed — just you and your antenna antics.
Come for the stories. Stay for the laughter. Leave with new ideas (or at least some validation).
Over the last couple of months there has been a noticeable degradation of the VK7RAD 2m Analogue FM repeater, with increased noise and crackling on the audio, and people requiring more power to get in to the repeater.
Additionally the club had been loaning a Bushcomm SWC-100S Antenna from VK7FAZE for 3 years, but it’s power limitations for non-SSB transmissions meant it was also time for a more permanent antenna to be procured and the loan returned.
A TET Emtron ED-52c was purchased as a replacement multi-band HF antenna and a Diamond X50N and these were installed last weekend, where it was discovered that the Heliax feed line to the repeater antenna was damaged, and it too has been replaced.
The New Antennas
VK7ZBX Adjusts 6m Antenna
All up, a good 3 hours was completing the necessary maintenance and has been well worth it, with many users of the repeater mentioning the improved quality of the signal and Dave VK7DM is also reporting that where he used to need 40 Watts to get into the repeater with a clean signal, he now needs only 1 Watt!.
Thanks to VK7s SD, ZMS, ZBX, ZCR, FPCL and BEN for their assistance on the day with the maintenance work!
