Time to by a Dipole

Given that i have 2 children under the age of 5 (one more on the way) my time is very much limited. After 2 attempts to construct my own dipoles I made the choice to cough up $37 and by a Radiowavz dipole from HRO in VA. Although, there is a lot of talk about why would anyone by a commercial dipole it simply comes down to time. In my case I had to weigh construction versus having some fun and getting on air.

So, as the story progresses the dipole was my 4th best purchase. After getting the dipole I took it up to the attic and first mounted it in the raptures with hopes of being able to relocate from the garge to the guest bedroom. As it turns out the QRM in the attic was a little to much. Luckly, we had a break in the cold with a warm day, so I took the dipole out of the attic, grabed my 12' painters pole, 50' of the coax I got with the swr/power meter from Ebay, some old line from my sailboat, and put my dipole up in an inverted-v.

With my radio ontop of table on the deck, my laptop, trusted radioshack meter, rigblaster nomic, and my new dipole. This got me a good 599 contact into Palm Bay, FL with N4URW on 8 Feb at about 10W. Success again! As the package said, "there is nothing like a tuned dipole" and I might add with a half-way decent RF choke balun.

Finnaly, I'm getting some where, more to come.

--Chris