My Yaesu FT-817 Resurrection by Jim WJ1MK

 My 817 is still kicking, she came back alive as a VHF/UHF all mode radio this morning...

I came across a so-239 connector that I had a couple of short pieces of copper I had soldered on probably for a past experimental antenna...

I had a couple of minutes this morning and quickly through together two pieces of aluminum fence wire I had laying around and made a very crude and ugly 2 meter 1 radial 1/4 wave ground plane...

 It ended up being 1.4 :1 SWR across the entire 2 meter band... I taped the connector 1/4 wave mess to a piece of fiberglass electric fence rod and stuck it into a tripod in the shack... 

 I set the 817 to 1/2 a watt and brought up the WR1VT machine in Brattleboro VT and John W1USB in Wardsboro VT came back to my test and told me I was full quieting into the machine, we talked for a bit and then it was time for me to get the animals out and get my day started. 

I guess I'll probably solder up a more durable 1/4 ground plane and just leave things basically as they are, the Brattleboro machine is the most active machine locally and seeing as I really don't do much VHF/UHF work, it should suffice nicely for my needs...

It just made me happy to know all my cobbled together, down and dirty, ugly stuff that worked for me in NY... still works the same up here in NH! :-)

 73 de Jim WJ1MK

Looking for an easy way to calculate the vertical and radial components of  1/4 Wave Ground Plane Antenna Systems? Check out M0UKD's  online calculator!