Kenwood TS-120S

There are also a variety of free online practice tests...don't count, but will give you a good idea of what your weak areas are.

As far as the -BTV series of antennas...some folks say they're no good, others say they're great. My experience - not bad, but it is a compromise...but have WAS & 93 countries using a 5-BTV...so far, with it mounted at ground level and three radials. 80 meters coverage is quite narrow though without a tuner.

 

Just recently saw (don't ask me where 'cause I forget) an article that said more radials is better, and I can subscribe to that. "He said" he has 60ish radials, all different lengths, which "he said" greatly improved coverage. I'm too much a novice at this sort of thing, haven't a single vertical to call my own other than the mag mount. All this by way of saying there's the luck factor as well as location, location, location.

Nugget for @norseman :
A "tuner" or "matchbox" or any of several other nice and not nice names, is an electronic thing that makes the antenna look like a good, harmless, place for the transmitter to dump rf. There are many reasons for using one to massage the outgoing rf into a form that the antenna can best use to get your signal out. They are not cure-alls for mismatching antennas to the band, but can improve the odds of getting your signal out of the neighborhood without damaging the transmitter. Your study will take a fast pass over tuners, but will not really emphasis them or their use. Just be aware that such things are almost always needed for your station.

Some xceivers have internal tuners, some do not, but the usual case is that the onboard tuners are generally fairly narrow band, in that they can't handle broad mismatches. For example, my main xceiver holds most of 40 meters under control easily, but above about 7.2MHZ (80M band), it will not bring the mismatch into line, and I have to use an external tuner.

 

The pitch of the roof (Grd plane) will affect the angle of signal radiation. The flatter the roof the more vertical the radiation pattern. Will distance of antenna above the grd plane also affect launch angle? What effect will it have on a beam? I don't know how or have any way to run some Smith charts.

 

I have been studying the ARRL manual. I had no idea of the complexity of Ham Radio. I have some electrical back ground so I understand some of it but it is a lot to take in.

 

Ham radio is as complex as you want to make it. Before you get discouraged, take a couple squints at some of the on line tests, find the answers in the books and it won't be too long and looking up the answers won't be necessary, you'll already know them.

 

If you want to lower the takeoff angle, have the ground plane angle down and away from the base of the vertical antenna. This will also affect the feedpoint impedence, so some adjustments may be in order to obtain the best match. As far as affect on a beam...well, a beam doesn't reply on a separate ground plane as one half of the driven element is the "ground" half of the antenna...sort of like a dipole

 

Evening
I had the transistor Q1 on the CAR board replaced. Now I am getting some readings on JJY and 3.5 but not the full dial. 14 I get the whole dial. 21,28,28.5,29, and 29.5 all have the two dots. JJy will show 14.873.6 to 14.654.5 and 3.5 will show 3.729.2 to 3.790.0
any advice on what to check?
Thanks

 

AGain, it's time to measure that antenna and see what you really have. Odds are it is cut for 20M, and will not tune any higher frequency.