Old Tuner to the Rescue

According to the weather prognosticators, today is the start of a 4- or 5-day heatwave here in southeastern Pennsylvania. So, I wanted to get out early for some antenna testing before things heated up too much.

I planned to play around with the speaker wire end-fed halfwave antenna I built recently. To do this, I went back to my favorite antenna test range—my daughter and son-in-law’s property. 

I set up the formerly 66-foot wire (now about 63 feet) in an inverted-V configuration. Since the last time I used this antenna, I trimmed off a couple of feet to see if I could get my little Hendricks SOTA tuner to load it on 20M. 

I started with the SOTA tuner on the 40M band and worked a POTA activator in Indiana. I moved up to 20M, but the SOTA tuner wouldn’t tune below a 2.2:1 SWR. 

Before I left the house today, I had the forethought to pack an old antenna tuner I built about 25 years ago. I used it extensively years ago, but I relegated it to the shelf when fancier equipment came along. I switched to the old tuner, which I configured as an L-match. It loaded up nicely on 40, 20, and 15 meters. As a bonus, the old-school tuner gave a good match on 30 and 17 meters. 

After I finished experimenting with the antenna, I set out to make a few contacts. It was a busy day for Parks-on-the-Air (POTA) activators. I worked 10 of them in 8 states plus Puerto Rico. Three of the QSOs were on 17 meters. It was nice to hear POTA activity up there. 

All in all, I was pleased with how my old homebrew antenna tuner performed. I don’t think it will be spending as much time on the shelf in the future.

73, Craig Wb3GCK