Uhf Amateur

What type of solid copper wire would I need to build a ground plane antenna for VHF & UHF Amateur radio use?

I am looking into building an antenna that was featured in the December 2008issue of CQ. It calls for 10 or 12 gauge solid copper wire. I did a search through Radio Shack and I am coming up with several types of wire.
What type of wire should I be using for this antenna?
Thanks.

I USED 10 GA SOLID COPPER
WITH A BLACK PLASTIC COVER
REMOVING 2 FT FROM ONE END
TO MAKE A TRAP LOOP I RAN 2
EA FROM BOTH ENDS OF MY 50
FT HOME DROPED DOWN 20 FT
AND GROWNED ONE LINE TO A
6 FT COPER GROUNDING ROD
THE OTHER TO MY EICO TRANSMITTER FACING EAST=
WEST AND TALKED TO EVERYONE
IN SO AMERICA AND AROUND THE
GLOBE IN A 300 W HOMEMADE
THIS ANTANA WORKS WONDERS
ON CB AND SCANNER RECEPTION

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Radiosport as a term is sometimes used as two separate words, or as one word. It refers to the use of amateur radio equipment or the "ham" in short, as part of playing some kind of game. It might be group event or event of a single person. It may involve other competitors in real time as a career or as performance or achievement over a given period.

The contests are usually sponsored events, and can last from several hours to 2 days, the world of contests every two days usually. It may be local to a specific region, or may involve traveling a long distance. It can be a cumulative competition taking place for many weekends, or in a Sprint competition, which lasts only a few hours. The rules are specific to the event and include the stations (the regions), may participate and the like.

This is usually called radiosports. This can be any of the following.

Dx-Competition: This is when the station are two ways to make contact with as many stations as possible on the greatest possible distance. This is called the DX-day international competition. Prizes may be taken for the following achievements. The "Worked All States award" if the participants in touch with someone from every state in the U.S.. The "Worked All Continents Award" is he chooses to make contact with one person from each continent. "Worked All areas Award" is the same concept with time zones. Other awards include the Century Award DX Club, and / VHF UHF Century Club Award.

Another event is an Amateur Radio Direction finding using radios. A number of transmitters needs found in a specific region on a map before reaching the baseline. This is based on athletic ability ham operator and find leadership ability with the radios.

Fox hunting Oaring or Bunny: This is similar to the previous competition, but includes teams from shorter range of hams, by which is based more in the direction of getting the skills of the contestants instead of athletic ability. It is more technical than the previous competition, and radio can detect signals as low as 100 meters or so away, so that the contestant must locate the hidden transmitter in an area of 200 m radius.

One more game that severely restricted Oaring Fox is the orientation of competition on Radio compact areas. This requires very high technical skills.

Another how to find the amateur radio address, or rabbit hunting, which uses transport vehicles longer distances. The hams have to travel in their vehicles to the specific region and find the transmitter. Whoever finds the first transmitter and reaches the finish line wins. A variation is that of finding a number given transmitter hidden in different places first wins. This depends on the ability to travel, the ability of orientation and efficiency of the equipment also.

These events are called ARDF competitions, which is short of Amateur Radio Direction Finding Contests. Radiosports contests or are only part of the activity pastime. Entering competitions is not a requirement, but many engaged in this almost obsessively, and pick win certified by the dozen in fact. At the other extreme are those who have the same passion for being a ham, but do so exclusively for communication and satisfaction. The significance of hams to be mentioned here is hams that can and do make regular contact with space stations. Many astronauts are licensed amateur radio operators and use their radios for educational purposes, and as an emergency backup.

So what was once covering a small region at the local level has now entered in space! The that was previously only based on the Morse code has evolved into a greater involvement of changes in voice, digital transmission and so on. It's exciting see how radio has changed much in recent years.

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Radio Sports for Die-hard Hobbyists