I’ve committed heinous acts in HF. Since my primary rig is a Xiegu G90 and the built-in antenna tuner can tune up a wet paper bag I’ve put tuning my antennas on the back burner. Well no more! This past Easter weekend I rolled out my 4SQRP EFHW from this article/video with my tiny radio kit consisting of the truSDX and K6ARK portable mic. I forgot to bring my NanoVNA but I followed the instructions and measured the length of the antenna very carefully. I had cut it to 67 feet and I foolishly thought I could just eyeball it and walk it in. WRONG. A couple hours go by and no luck. I can hear everyone but I’m just not getting out and I can’t get my SWR walked in.
With my head hung low I admitted defeat and packed up for the day. The next day at home with full access to my my NanoVNA, I rolled out my antenna. I decided I wanted it to only be a 20M & 10M antenna so I can keep the portability up so I remeasured for 33.6 feet. I strung it up, connected the NanoVNA and started to slowly walk in the SWR until it covered the portions of the bands i wanted. It took about 10 minutes and then I hooked up the truSDX. As soon as I fired it up I could hear someone. I made out “CQ POTA CQ POTA”, I tossed my callsign out not expecting a response but I heard back “Station ending in HOTEL?”. I gave my call sign again and he read it back with a signal report. Ohio to Rhode Island on 5 watts!
Let this be a reminder to always take the 10 minutes to tune your antenna and don’t always rely on tools you may not have. I for one am going to purchase at least 1 more NanoVNA to keep in my kit for on the go.
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