I finally finished my first antenna tonight! I made a [twinlead slim jim][] and tried getting on the air. Unfortunately, there aren’t many people on this late on a holiday evening. I *was* able to make one contact with a gentleman up in Placerville. He reported me 5×5, so I must have been hitting the repeater fairly strong. I’ll try again tomorrow, during the noon net at least.
The only difficulty I found with this design is the feedpoint. Stripping the insulation mid-cable is a little fiddly, but a sharp knife does wonders. When I soldered the coax (RG-58), I should have done the shield first–it was a *bear* to solder the (stranded) shield once the center conductor was already attached. A pair of “third hands” may have helped.
[twinlead slim jim]: http://www.hamuniverse.com/2meter300ohmslimjim.html
