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APRS Gear
Today I ordered some APRS gear from Scott at Argent Data, looks like some of it is on backorder 
Should be fun to get back into APRS, I used to enjoy it a lot and it looks like a number of cool things are now available since I last used APRS about 8 years ago.
New ATU
Because I’m not using an optimal antenna (actually far from it) I recently purchased an antenna tuner. I ended up getting an LDG Z-100 which is a nice small compact unit that goes well with my Yaesu FT 857D.
After reading reviews I ended up ordering direct from the US and saved myself about $80 compared to a local purchase, it’s always nice to save some cash 
The unit took about 5 days to arrive and I haven’t had a great deal of time to give it a good work out, however initial testing shows it works a treat.
In the backyard I have the small G5RV at around head height, with the tuner in line I can now use prety much any band.
First Contact
This afternoon I managed to put my newly acquired G5RV up. It’s on a wooden pole at 8ft in the centre and about 6 feet at the ends. Just fits inside the backyard
It’s not ideal, will have to get it up permanently somehow in a better position but I can hear tons more on it than the previous setup already.
15mins after I put it up I had my first contact on 20m with Ken J07CVU in Sendai, Northern Japan. Looks like I might have fun!
New Antenna
Bought a 40m to 10m G5RV on Ebay for $50, should be a bit better to hang in the yard than my dodgy wires at the moment.
Wire Antenna
Living in suburbia doesn’t give you a huge number of options for antennas on HF. When I was at my parents earlier in the week I collected a bunch of wire dipoles that I used to have hanging in the sky.
I’ve hung up what was a 15m dipole in a little V behind the garage, hopefully nobody will lose a head when walking past Running about 40m of RG58 just to go about 10 feet, I better find a smaller length soon.
Can’t hear a lot, definitely can’t TX, SWR is waaay over the top according to the 857D.