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   Joe KC1SRI (geojoek@mastodon.hams.social)'s status on Wednesday, 14-May-2025 12:11:16 JST Joe KC1SRI

   (1/x)

   LTBOTA report: it turns out this Lenticular Truss Bridge makes an excellent receive antenna, but notsomuch Tx: only 1 contact with a POTA activator in Kentucky on 20m. The band was packed with stations from the west coast of the U.S. to Europe. I fed the thing at the center of the span on a vertical structural member. It tuned on all bands, but I didn't bring a common mode choke, so got bad feedback and a little bit of a zap while trying to transmit on 40 and 80m.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardwell's_Ferry_Bridge

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     Crispy Branzino (nimbius666@comp.lain.la)'s status on Wednesday, 14-May-2025 12:11:13 JST Crispy Branzino

     in reply to
     @Geojoek I'd not heard of the g90 but I mostly work 2 meter in the city. As a vec I should be way more active than I am in hf so maybe I'll pick one up!
     Doughnut Lollipop 【記録係】:blobfoxgooglymlem: likes this.
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     Joe KC1SRI (geojoek@mastodon.hams.social)'s status on Wednesday, 14-May-2025 12:11:14 JST Joe KC1SRI

     in reply to

     • Crispy Branzino

     @Nimbius666

     See the photos and the videos, but the Xiegu G-90 has a famously robust little tuner that will find a match for just about anything: there are youtube videos of people loading up all sorts of random objects and making contacts, including a wet spaghetti noodle, and a light bulb.

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     Crispy Branzino (nimbius666@comp.lain.la)'s status on Wednesday, 14-May-2025 12:11:15 JST Crispy Branzino

     in reply to
     @Geojoek how were you using a truss bridge? How would you tune it?
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     Crispy Branzino (nimbius666@comp.lain.la)'s status on Wednesday, 14-May-2025 12:16:38 JST Crispy Branzino

     in reply to
     @Geojoek tbh the big rigs are only a must have if you need half a dozen proprietary digital protocols or macro automation. Chinese 2 meter handhelds have really impressed me lately (not baofeng)
     Doughnut Lollipop 【記録係】:blobfoxgooglymlem: likes this.
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     Joe KC1SRI (geojoek@mastodon.hams.social)'s status on Wednesday, 14-May-2025 12:16:39 JST Joe KC1SRI

     in reply to

     • Crispy Branzino

     @Nimbius666

     It's a really great little workhorse. It has some compromises and can't compare to the $1000+ HF radios, but for the price it's pretty amazing!