In my last blog entry I wrote about the “code hanger antenna” I put up. It is in fact a MFJ-1795 antenna of course that looks a bit like a coat hanger.
I tested it out a bit and decided that it’s not bad, but not really a big improvement over my homemade antennas. I made a few dipoles for the 10m, 12m, 15m, 20m bands and they turned out surprisingly good. They are hanging in my attic and I worked the whole world with them on 100w mostly! I’m also very close to getting my DXCC, again mostly done with my homemade dipoles. I still have 5 countries / entities to go but I’m getting there!
The advantage of my home made antennas over the MFJ-1795 is that my dipoles are hanging inside. This means I don’t need to worry about lightening getting into the antennas or snow laying on them, or just plain rain rusting of the metal parts.
So I decided to remove the coat hanger antenna again! The only band I was now missing is the 40m band. This one i replaced with a ham stick on the side of the roof. This also works ok, for a hamstick. I worked, among others, Florida with it which is about 6000 or 7000 km I guess. Not bad for the 40m band, and not bad for a hamstick!