10m Moxon in the air

Got the 10m Moxon up in the air on my PVC mast. Using both 10 foot sections of the mast proved to be a little too cumbersome for just myself to handle, so settled for using one 10 foot section and propped it up against a ladder for support. This gets the Moxon 4.15m (13.6 feet) up in the air. Not quite as high as I wanted, but for testing purposes, it will do.

Fiddled with the antenna element lengths and was able to get the SWR as low as 2.5-2.6 across the band, which is pretty close to the limit of what the tuner in the radio will match. Should be able to get it lower but I’m sure the ladder is messing things up some.

In any case, the antenna is up in the air and connected to the radio. Receive seems to be working pretty well. Loud stations come in louder, and the fainter stations come in just a little bit louder. I could definitely see a difference switching between the Moxon and the dipole while watching some 10m PSK.

Haven’t tried transmitting on the antenna yet. I’d like to see if I can get it a little higher and tune it so that the SWR a little lower.

Working with the shortened version of the mast seemed to work out pretty well, so I think as a platform for antenna experiments, it will do nicely.

Now to work on getting the antenna up higher and installed more permanently.