The sun was out a few days ago. I know, I cant quite believe it either.
I drove over to our local disused aerodrome and tried out my new 20m/40m linked dipole from sotabeams together with my nice shinny new sotapole.
This was to be quite a test for me as I have quite bad Rheumatoid Arthritis slowly destroying my joints, especially in my hands.
On arrival I laid out the antenna and sota pole as instructed in the youtube video by sotabeams, that I had watched several times the previous evening.
Within a few mins the antenna was up and I was on the air with very little joint pain to show for it.
I was a little concerned when I first got the pole that I would not be able to "lock" the pole sections in place with my dodgy hands. But I need not have worried, it took surprisingly little force to twist the sections into place and taking it down was just as easy.
Again no problems, I had an extremely good match on 20m and 40m right across the bands.
Some good cw and phone contacts on 20m and 40m followed with my little Qrp set up.
On the whole a very good result and great products to play with.
I shall be out and about a lot more during the summer. Weather permitting.
