Welcome aboard Rob, dont forget to chip in, everyone likes a build thread! I find that submitting a build helps me months down the line when I've long forgotten how or why I did something...
Cheers
Phil (G4PHL)
This is my rig next to the 40m transceiver I showed earlier, a 5 band QRP morse Mountaintopper CW transceiver with an output power of 4 Watts maximum. I now temporarily use a vertical in the house, about 3 m long on the first floor. Made another QSO with Croatia this morning, 1250 km. I designed the antenna tuner for this rig. As a tuner with a bridge for SWR measurement, it has always been a safe load for the transmitter. The SWR measurement works on the power of the transmitter, so does not require a separate power supply. Once the antenna is tuned in, switch off the SWR bridge and the antenna is directly coupled to the tuner. The fied strength meter I use for fine tuning. The morse key works with iambic B.
The set is powered from a 2500 mAh battery and serves for outdoor use with a wire antenna that I shoot into a tree with a catapult, for example or a 5 a 6 m vertical.
I first unwind about thirty meters and put it in eight shape in front of me. I use my catapult upside down, the handle on top and the fork on the bottom. I tie the carabiner to the end of the rope and shoot it over a branch of the tree. Then I first use a small pulley with a rope attached to the carabiner and pull it upwards and then lift the antenna. The pulley makes pulling down the antenna and pulley easier. I don't have to pull it back over the branch with the risk of it getting caught. First I lower the antenna and with the double rope of the pulley I pull the first rope out of the tree.
73 the PD7CW