[WVDXA] The Further Antenna Adventures of W8TN
Philip M. Roberts
w8uv at hughes.net
Mon Nov 26 17:49:04 PST 2007
Garry,
What were your new ones??
Phil
At 08:36 PM 11/26/2007, you wrote:
>Wow!. You do deserved to be called our
>"Fearless Leader." I worked four new ones on
>160 and had my chest all puffed out until I read
>your email. ONLY THING OUT NOW IS MY LOWER LIP.
>
>Congrats, Clark.
>
>Garry
>Well, as a couple of you know, I busted my tail
>this week to try and get up a 160-M Inverted "L"
>antenna for the CQ Contest this weekend. I
>spent the Phone contest on 80-M but with only
>the 80-M antenna currently up, I thought I'd
>like to give 160-M a try during the CW weekend.
>
>Pictures describing the antenna construction can
>be found here:
><<http://w8tn.com/Gallery/Tower>http://w8tn.com/Gallery/Tower>
>Begin with the second photo with the text "19
>November I gathered the materials . . ."
>
>What is NOT shown there is the PAIN I
>suffered. It took three trips up the tower,
>staying on the tower one night till 45 minutes
>after sundown, and an uncounted number of trips
>through the woods behind my house. Working by
>myself caused me to have to come up with some
>inventive ways to do the project. All this
>resulted in many bruises, scrapes, abrasions,
>and a pulled muscle in my side which has caused
>me the biggest problem. Why is it that little
>projects like this cause so much trouble when you are nearly 60 years old?
>
>First I had to gather the materials. This
>involved a trip to Home Depot and then the Water
>Company. I needed to construct an RF choke
>(several turns of coax) and I found a
>description in the ARRL Antenna Book of one
>using 30 turns of RG-213 on an 8-inch diameter
>piece of PVC. Turns out Home Depot doesn't have
>anything that large but the Water Company
>graciously gave me a 6-foot piece. So if anyone
>needs some 8-inch PVC, I have almost 5-feet left.
>
>To get the antenna to come off the tower
>horizontally at 60-feet above ground requires
>putting a line over a tall tree or two to
>support the antenna wire. The EZ Hang
><<http://www.ezhang.com/>http://www.ezhang.com/>
>slingshot with spinning reel which I have used
>several times in the past, failed me. I had
>installed a new set of elastic tubing bands and
>a new roll of fishing line but, for some reason,
>I could not keep from snagging the line in the
>elastic bands when trying to launch it from the
>ground. So, after 6 or 7 failures to launch the
>line, I had to climb the tower and hang off the
>side to launch the line over a couple of
>trees. This time it worked! So, I climbed
>down, trekked through the woods and tied the
>fishing line to some Dacron antenna support line
>(note the Boy Scout method I used to let the
>line unroll freely in one of the pictures linked
>above.) Back at the tower I reeled in the line
>and attached it to the antenna. Then, off
>through the woods to pull the antenna up and
>check the SWR with an MFJ-259B Antenna Analyzer.
>
>Imagine my disappointment when the antenna
>showed an infinite SWR! I was crushed. Three
>days of difficult work seemed lost. So, I
>checked everything I could then I called
>W8DL. Don was shocked that it did not work as
>my dimensions were nearly the same as
>his. However, his antenna played against a
>conventional ground radial system and I was
>trying the "quick and dirty" single elevated
>radial for my installation. He suggested either
>removing the RF Choke or modifying the radial
>system. But, I was short on time and did not
>feel I could get a good enough ground installed before the contest.
>
>I then called my 160-M guru, KØCS, and he was
>stumped as well. However, he did comment that
>the dimensions I was using (straight out of the
>ARRL Antenna Book) seemed a bit too long for
>him. He suggested that I cut 30-feet off the
>radial and see what happened. Then, I could
>lower the vertical radiator and cut some off it until a match was found..
>
>So, on Friday (the day the contest started) I
>braved the 30-degree temperatures and climbed
>down the hill with my tools. As I was going
>over the hill Evelyn yelled down that KØCS had
>called and said to try moving the antenna
>further away from the tower. So, I tried that
>and found a bit of an improvement but only a
>negligible amount. Then I hiked out to the end
>of the radial and cut off 30-feet. Back at the
>tower the MFJ-259 Analyzer said I had made a
>nice change in the resonant frequency but not
>enough by far. So, back through the woods to
>attach the roll of Dacron to the end of the
>vertical radiator. NOTE: Here is where I made
>a crucial mistake! It was cold, snowing, and
>windy and my brain failed to realize that when I
>pulled the antenna back up, the end I was tying
>the line to now would be up in the air. I
>mistakenly thought I would only need a temporary knot on the Dacron. WRONG!
>
>Then, back to the tower and up I went. At the
>60-foot level I carefully pulled in the 110-feet
>of the radiator tophat and, while hanging on the
>tower in the wind, measured and cut off
>30-feet. I then carefully arraigned the wire so
>it would not snag and went down the tower and
>out through the woods. I then proceeded to pull
>up the antenna. When I thought I almost had it
>to the end, it seemed to snag and I gave a
>little more pressure to the Dacron line and
>suddenly it went slack. Yep, the "temporary"
>knot had untied and the end of the antenna
>support line was 20-feet in the air! RATS! All
>this work and now the antenna was at the mercy
>of the wind and roosting birds. The slightest
>thing would cause it to fall. And, I had
>snagged the fishing line and could not use the
>slingshot (if it would even work again!) Needless to say, I was bummed out!
>
>But, I carefully wound the Dacron back on the
>reel and trudged dejectedly back to the
>tower. I put the MFJ on the antenna and
>VOILA! It was now resonant at 1.75 MHz. Close
>enough to 160-M that it just might work.
>
>To try and salvage some of this work I climbed
>back up to the house and quickly installed a
>vacuum variable capacitor in a plastic can and
>took it back over the hill. Tuning the
>capacitor to the end stop resulted in an SWR of
>1.7:1 from 1.800 to 1.820 MHz, 1.8:1 at 1.825
>MHz and 2.0:1 at 1.835 MHz. Maybe, just maybe, this could work.
>
>So, I wearily pulled my aching body back up the
>hill and fired up the amp. Yep, it would put
>out 1,000 watts up to 1.835 Mhz. with no
>difficulty. So, I fired up the laptop computer
>for logging and got ready to start the contest
>in just 45 minutes! That's cutting it close.
>
>As they say, the proof is in the pudding (or the
>QSO's.) In my 43 years of ham radio, I had
>dabbled at 160-M a time or two but never had a
>decent antenna. My country total for that
>entire 43 years stands at just 23 countries
>confirmed. However, this weekend, I added
>TWENTY-NINE (29) NEW Countries and 7 NEW Zones
>to my totals! WOW! Am I excited now? Yep!
>
>Here is my contest score:
>
> Band QSOs Pts Cty ZN
> 1.8 71 162 38 15
>
>Final Score: 8,586
>
>Bear in mind I was not trying for a contest
>"score" but only seeing if I could work some new
>countries. Well, I sure did. I even stayed up
>that first night until 7:30 a.m. and tried for
>over 1/2 hour to work a JA. I heard him really
>quite well but he never got a peep from me. I
>did manage 5 continents and only missed Asia for
>a WAC my first night on the band from the new
>QTH. And, that was with no receiving antennas and not very good conditions.
>
>New countries worked (that I had never worked
>before on 160-M were: CN, CM, PJ5, VE (Yep,
>never worked Canada before), HR, J3, KV4, EA, SV
>(Zone 20 !), FJ/FS, 3X, G, SM, OM, ZF, SP, OK,
>XE, V4, HC8, YN, GW, FM, 6Y, YS, VP2M, EA6, V2,
>and, LX. NEW Zones were: 33, 20, 02, 35, 15, 06, and 10.
>
>If the birds and the wind will just leave the
>wire alone for a few months I'll have some more
>fun on the band. If not, it looks like more
>work to get the antenna tuned better and then
>back up over the trees. But, at least I proved the concept.
>
>
>Clark, W8TN
>Working Toward 160-M DXCC
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----------
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