220 Mhz 5 element yagi beam.

[pkveazey]

Damn!!!! I can't believe it. I ordered a 220 beam because my 1/4 wave spike antenna at 40 feet only picks up 1 of the 2 Richmond 220 repeaters. They are about 40 miles north of me. I can always hear both of them but I can only hit one of them and then that is hit and miss with 25 watts. Anyway, I mounted the new 220 beam about 12 feet up the tower so I could test it. Before I start, let me say that I followed the instructions exactly as the manual said. I tested it inside the house by resting the Reflector on the floor with the antenna pointed straight up. Hmmmmm.... It appeared to be a bit off resonance. Now that I have it mounted to the side of the tower and using my antenna analyzer, and about 15 feet of heavy coax, it showed a perfect 50 Ohms on the Smith Chart and 1.04 to 1 SWR at 225 Mhz. All that is left to do is find some fool to climb the tower, unscrew the coax from the 1/4 wave spike and mount the beam at least 30 feet up and pointed due North and then attach the Coax connector to it. I hope I don't get impatient and climb my 78 year old butt up that tower and try to mount it myself. If any of you have not tried 220 Mhz, it is a good band and operates almost the same as 2 meters. I get 25 watts out at 2 meters and I get 25 watts out at 220  but I only get about 13 watts out at 440. Before you ask, Yes, the radio is a QYT KT8900R 25 watt triband radio with a 3 position antenna switch. As George Goble once said, "You can't hardly get them no more".

[Zip]

Hey bro Im in Richmond too and can hit both repeaters with a magmount and a tyt 9000 pushing 65 watts.
Good to know some one in here is close. 220 is a great band! I just put up and endfed halfwave an been on hf alot.
Hope we can catch up sometime!

[pkveazey]

Zip: You are the closest Prepper to me. I'm down near Stony Creek and I've switched from TYT's to QYT's because I now have a stack of about 6 TYT 9000D's that locked up when power was lost while they were turned on. I don't know if TYT has corrected that issue or not. The QYT's don't seem to mind if the lights blink while it's turned on. I still have one working TYT 2 meter rig in one of my vehicles that hasn't gotten its brains scrambled from a loss of power. I've been very careful to turn the radio off before I shut down the engine. I've been told that there is a fix for the broken one's but I can't seem to find the teeny tiny component and install the Jumper connection.

[Zip]

ok stoney creek, yeah im in western henrico.  my tyt 9000 stays in my shack pretty much all the time as opposed to taking it mobile. I have a tyt 9800 quad band that is fried, second one of that radio that crapped out on me. I run a yaesu 3100 in my truck, a yaesu ftm7250 and 991a in my shack.
Do you do any hf?
Lets catch up on the air on 220 or I guess you can hit the 2 meter machine in petersburg?

Happy easter

73

[pkveazey]

Zip: Yes, I do HF with an ICOM 7300 with an LDG auto tuner and try to connect with the Unchained Preppers on Tuesday nights ERIN Net at 8 PM. The wife is also a Ham and we use 2 meter simplex because the wife doesn't like listening to chit chat on the local repeaters. I check into the Petersburg 2 meter repeater ARES net every Wednesday at 8 PM. Antennas are a 2 meter ground plane at 50 feet up, 160 Meter center fed 1/2 wave Dipole at 30 Feet, 80 meter Hamstick at about 30 feet up, 40 Meter Hamstick at 12 feet up ands soon to be raised to about 25 or 30 feet, 10 meter Hamstick at about 40' up, 440 ground plane at 40' up, 220 ground plane at 40' up, 440 cubical quad beam for DMR at about 35' up. The 220 Beam is just mounted about 10 feet up for testing and will be moved to about 30 or 40 feet to replace the 220 Ground plane. I also plan to move the 40 meter Hamstick up to about 30 feet. I keep a Radio bugout backpack with an ICOM 718 with an LDG auto tuner and test equipment ready at all times. One vehicle has a Dual Band 2meter/440 and the others have a Triband 2 meter, 220, 440 in them.