Wow, what a weekend! The ARRL DX SSB contest proved to be a lot of fun and a good test for all of the antennas. Once again, I started a little late, this time due to noise being generated by a piece of equipment that I rely on in the station. Fortunately, I was able to borrow an older replacement from Alan, AB4OZ (Thanks, Alan.) So, with about an hour delayed start, I opened on 20 meters and kept firing. Read more…
While the 80 meter loop wouldn’t tune up on 160 meters, it was doing a great job as a receiving antenna on the band. (More to follow on the loop antenna’s performance in later posts.) All this did though was to make me want to put up an 160 meter antenna that much more. I did have a half-sloper for 160 meters sitting in the shack, something I’d been eyeing for a while, wondering if it would be worth putting up. At least it would be enough of an antenna to scratch that itch! Read more…
Last week, I replaced the HGSW beam with a full wavelength 80 meter Skywave Loop Antenna. The antenna is about 285 feet long and is suspended between four trees at about 80 feet high, roughly shaped as a trapezoid (two parallel sides). It is fed with about 100 feet of 450 ohm ladder line into a 4:1 balun, followed by about 20 ft of coax into the radio.
Reason for change:
While the HGSW beam performed well on 80 meters, it was only marginal on 40 m and not dramatically better than a dipole on the higher bands. Lately though, it has become almost impossible to tune it on 40 meters. Read more…
TA-33jr installed on Chimney Mount
Well, “a” TA-33 is up, not the same one.
The upper bands have been heating up all summer and I was getting the urge to do something to improve on my antennas. While the HGSW antenna does a fair job all around, I wanted something better. Read more…
It’s October! Are you ready for the CQ WorldWide SSB contest at the end of the month?
Link to CQ WW WPX Contest
I’ve been sitting around here trying to figure out what I want to do about the CQ WW SSB contest. I’ve already challenged one of the local hams and might throw down the gauntlet in front of a few more. But do I want to make any changes to the shack? I still have the HGSW beam hanging in the trees above the houes (see earlier posts), but I’ve been hearing a lot about the upper bands coming to life. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tri-band yagi up, at least for comparison? Maybe it’ll help me get more contacts this year. These thoughts created an itch that I just have to scratch! Read more…
Ever try to operate a contest and change a hot water heater at the same time?
Last month brought the CQ Worldwide SSB 2010 contest, presenting an opportunity to test out the High Gain Single Wire Beam antenna (HGSW) described in my last blog entry. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought I’d give it some exercise. In spite of losing a day to help a fellow ham with a broken water heater, I managed to put in several hours of happy contesting, covering every band to some degree. The result was a log with about 242 contacts in 64 countries and 23 zones for a score of over 111,000 points. Not a bad effort, given that I wasn’t really trying that hard. Read more…
Well, I said it was temporary. On Friday, I took the TA-33M down. As soon as I can get the pieces all together and figure out an asking price, I will put it up for sale. If nobody buys it earlier, I’ll have it at the RARSFest 2010 hamfest at the Raleigh, NC State Fairgrounds on April 3. Along with the standard 3-band TA-33, I have the 17m+12m driven element and the 40 meter extension kit. I haven’t decided if I will sell it as a complete package or three seperate packages. There’s a used Rohm push-up mast too. More to follow.
73,
Cliff W4FT
It looks like my B&W 160-20 trap dipole is having some serious issues. I noticed during the Nov. Sweeps contest that contacts on 40 meters were almost impossible, but 20 and 80 meters was working like a charm. When I put the antenna analyzer on it, I discovered something disturbing. Everything below 20 meters was 6:1 or worse! ( The match on 20 meters is still around 1:1) Today, I pulled the antenna down and started checking it. Everything looked ok mechanically, so I started checking for opens across the traps. Results were inconsistent, and not repeatable on the ohmmeter.
To make a long story short, OXIDATION! I should have soldered all the connections instead of depending on just the mechanical connection of twisted wires. The oxidation looks to be disrupting the antenna connections between the wires and the traps. One of the 40 meter traps may be bad too.
Now, I’m thinking that it is time to replace this antenna with something else for 160 through 40 meters. 160 is a bonus, but 80 and 40 are absolutely required. I have 20 and up covered with a yagi. I’ve been thinking about loops, dipoles, etc., but this probably needs to be some kind of wire antenna. I do have several trees to serve as supports.
Throw out your suggestions! What would you go with?
73, W4FT
TA-33M and Cushcraft 11 element Yagi are halfway up!
I’ve been remodeling my house for a while now, so the radio shack and the antennas have seen frequent changes and moves. Earlier this summer, I found myself wanting more than just my B&W 160-20 trap dipole hanging in the trees. This would be a temporary install only. Sometimes, you just have to scratch an itch. 
Read more…
Recent Comments