Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has a very successful and prosperous New Year in 2010!

I have been working on a coil for my mobile antenna to get it on 160m. I use a Tarheel model 200 screwdriver for mobile HF but it only covers 10-80m. My goal is to get the antenna to resonate on 160 with the new coil, by itself. The coil I am building is probably going to be a lot more efficient than any 2" screwdriver coil ever will be. The wire I am using is essentially 10 gauge aluminum wire (it is welding wire, but it solid aluminum). I have heard that the aluminum will be less efficient than other materials, however it is what I had on hand so I figured I would put it to use. Look for a blog post here in the next couple days about it. I am hoping to finish it tomorrow. There is a gathering at Universal Radio on Saturday morning so I want to have it working by then.

Here's a quick a sneak peak - the coil is 12" in diameter x 12" long with 5 turns/inch. I calculated the inductance to be around 750uH. As to how accurate that is I am not sure, but I hope it is at least that then I can trim to fit.