Jun 3, 2015
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Road Trip Day 13!
I think it's Day 13? I'm writing from home - huzzah! We got up a little later than we had expected, and missed the continental breakfast *sad*, but we left Best Western and moseyed our way on through South Dakota.
"Again folks, we realize how little there is in South Dakota!"
And this pretty much lasted all through SD to Minnesota. It actually didn't take too long before we got to Minnesota, and then when we got there, it wasn't too long before we saw the signs to get to Rochester.
It went by a LOT faster than I thought it would. Saw turnoffs for the little house on the prairie, which was neato. Whisker saw actual bison which was super cool, and I was just a little jealous. And...welp, that's about as interesting as that leg gets :).
So we got home today at 3pm or so, and while we could have relaxed, Whisker decided it'd be a good idea to set up our new antenna tuner/swr meter (MFJ-945E). So here's a pic of that:
And essentially, you kinda fiddle around with the A-L which sets the inductance. (I'll have to go back and read about what it really does). All I remember is that it has something to do with inductance.
Then you have to send a carrier signal, which essentially sounds like a solid 800MHz tone through the port that you'd normally send your CW through. Then while it's transmitting that long obnoxious tone (on low power), you adjust the transmitter and antenna knobs so that the reflected power is as minimal as possible. And when that's as minimal as possible, it essentially sets a SWR of 1:1 which is ideal.
I will explain more thoroughly when my brain has recovered from roadtrip mode :p. Anyway, so we tested it with the dipole 10m antenna we have, as well as the whip antenna that Whisker got me. Both were tuned appropriately, but because the antennas were so close to the actual rig, the rig picked up some of the RF that the antennas were transmitting. So I still heard myself all distorted.
Ah well, still a work in progress! And yes, it's good to be home :)
@atdiy/@tymkrs