Parks On the Air Nolte State Park - Smokin' Activation

 


This activation was a first for me.  I had been playing with the Shark HF 20m Hamstick type antenna. It has been a struggle to get the SWR down into a usable range, I prefer to get them down under 1.5:1.  Using a mag mount, I just didn't feel like I was getting a good ground to the vehicle.  So I switched to a stake hole mount.  That seemed to do the trick.  

These antennas are a little bit of a pain to trim down the whip.  Prior to switching to the new mount I had used my angle grinder to trim the whip.  Once I switched mounts, I pulled a new whip out of the package but decided not to trim it down.  Sure I know, I had read the instructions and knew better than to let the whip enter the loading coil area of the antenna.  But did I still do it?  Yup, sure did.  What's the worst thing that could happen, a little heat?  LOL!  I'm certain that we all make those mistakes every once in a while.  This one however ended up making for an interesting activation.

I arrived at Nolte State Park and was able to get set up really quick.  Set up the radio and laptop in the back seat and settled in for the activation.  The antenna was working great, I was running between 50 and 100 watts.  Logged my first few contacts in just a couple minutes.  I was running FT8 which is a high duty cycle mode.  I started to notice that when I was transmitting, the SWR started to climb.  Starting out a little over 1:1 and would climb to 1.5:1.  Not thinking much of it, I continued to operate, didn't get out and check my antenna, nothing.  Hind sight is 20/20 right?

Well, after a few times of seeing the SWR climb, the radio switched to transmit and 3:1.  I immediately abort the TX and hop out to check my antenna.  That is when I noticed.... the smoke.


Luckily I had the 40m set up with me, and had not let that whip get down into the loading coils.  I switched to 40m and saved my activation.  Felt pretty dumb, I knew better.  But chalked it up to a mistake and lessons learned.  I have a new 20m antenna on the way and will be certain to trim that whip.

So until next time, 73s...  ~K7WJV


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