So the rain stopped today and it was quite a nice day. The Quadri-Filar Helix Antenna has now been installed. I had to join the coax run indoors because it wasn't quite long enough to reach the antenna switch. I did this with two PL259 plugs and a back-to-back socket connector. (check for continuity and shorts) So now there is a mix of RG58 and RG8 Mini going to the antenna. Not ideal but it might suffice for what I'm doing just as long as the SWR is OK. Just hope there's not too much loss. A quick test with the analyser produced these results:
The image shows a sweep from 120 MHz to 150 MHz. All the markers are around an SWR of 2.
This image shows a sweep from 400 MHz to 500 MHz (100MHz sweep?) I'm not sure about this trace - it seems odd. All of the SWR readings are showing very low. Maybe I'm operating outside the parameters of the analyser (100MHz), It could also be that the antenna doesn't work on this band. It is, after all, designed for satellite reception on the 2m band. I'm not sure. I may have to delve a little deeper here to resolve it.
Testing the receive ability showed it to be working well on the 2m band. I tried the SWR meter on this band but it was reading quite high transmitting from my UV-5R handheld at 5 Watts. I don't know if the SWR meter is suitable for this frequency though. More checking required.
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