Welcome to 2022

A new year, a new antenna.

I ordered a MFJ-1796 from the US earlier. It's not the Hygain AV-640 I wanted to order. But then, Strictly Ham is closed effectively all month, and I never did get a response to numerous emails about its availability. 

I can't make sense of his competitor's bizarre website and the myriad of "out of stock" and other fluff that isn't helpful in actually letting me order. 

I decided on the MFJ-1796 simply because it's a vertical dipole. A heap of compromises yes. Shorter than my current vertical (absolutely). But, it is a dipole. Also, it's quite a bit more solid looking than the wonky bit of aluminium tubing currently floating around up there. 

It does also give me some scope to worry more about jacking it up higher. 

It's a multiband but doesn't do 80m and 40m is narrow. I did some soul searching and in reality, it's not my only antenna, and it's nearly always used for digital, so who cares? I don't do 80m on digital. I nearly always use 40 and 15m, so it'll be tuned around those.

It looks like an antenna too, so I like it. It looks to have a little more serious purpose than the neighbour's ute covered in antennas that may or may not be connected to CBs given the month of being covered in tinsel and Christmas lights (not knocking it - it looked cool)... Right now I just look like I'm trying to out do the CB'ers next door. 

It's got some mixed reviews. There's certainly going to be a fair bit of effort in setting it up. 

I don't really know if it's going to be "better" than the current radial-less EF vertical, or just "different". I'm hoping it'll be a little less noisy being electrically "complete". 

It's not due here until February, so it'll be a while before I get started.

In other news, the FTM-400XDR is sold. I just need to ship it. Post Office opens tomorrow, so that'll get done then. 

A good chunk of this new purchase was funded by a present from my parents; I notched up becoming a year older yesterday. If I didn't move quickly, the money would have vanished into more pressing things. ;)

The Retevis in the car I've decided needs to either go, or needs a filter. It's a little sensitive to power lines. I noted the other day driving around town that it was getting a little overloaded. Something the Yeasu never had much drama with. I wouldn't mind finding a second hand 7900 or the like with a separation kit. Future problems.