Hi Doug, Quad shielded RG-6 with a copper clad steel center conductor is an excellent choice on 160 and 80 meters as long as the cable lengths aren't very long. Outdoor rated quad shielded CCS RG-6 i
Several topbanders asked if I would measure the DC resistance of the solid copper and copper clad steel center conductors of the RG-6 coax for which I published the RF loss measurements. I also measu
Uli, A very important lesson about CCS RG-6 has been communicated to topbanders by you and several others who have had bad experiences. Thanks for taking the time to describe your unfortunate experie
My new 160 meter Broad Side - End Fire (BSEF) receiving array is now in use and performing extremely well, significantly better than my 900 foot Beverages and full size 4-square transmitting antenna.
Hi Larry, Your 160 meter CW skimmer is working extremely well, it spotted T6LG last night. No other U.S. skimmer spotted him! I couldn't hear any trace of T6LG, I guess I need to move my BSEF receivi
Hi Ron, Construction of a phase inversion transformer is covered in detail on page 23 of the excellent paper published by W5ZN and N4HY: http://www.w5zn.org/files/Design%20Construction%20&%20Evaluati
Hi Don, Thanks for your email, I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can. In W8JI's very rural area minimum main lobe beamwidth is more valuable to him than minimum sidelobes. Tom's choice o
Hi Larry, There isn't much difference between 70 foot and 130 foot end-fire spacing. If there isn't any other consideration, 130 feet is probably the better choice. 73 Frank W3LPL -- Original message
Hi Tom, You've surely built and evaluated more BSEF and 8-circle receiving arrays than any of the rest of us. I'm very new to them and after just a few days of evaluation I'm delighted with the resul
Hi Joel, Other than the three Magic T's, what other specific mods have you made to your 8-circles? Adding a T50-2 toroidal inductor and a BNC connector at the 50 ohm tap makes a quick job of adjustin
Hi Carl, I and many others have been using Fair-rite 2873000202 binocular cores with excellent success for years now. http://www.newark.com/fair-rite/2873000202/ferrite-core-cylindrical/dp/02E8908 Us
Hi Lee, Since I have two excellent receiving antennas to compare with (a 900 foot Beverage and a full size 4-square), I'm satisfied that I'm getting the expected performance from my BSEF receiving ar
Hi Lee, You can save yourself lots of engineering effort if you simply make yourself a copy of this one: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40+43+24+n,+141+19+44+e&hl=en&ll=40.72308,141.328892&spn=0.0033
Hi Gary, The University of Illinois research array in Bondville, Illinois was unique, it used one hundred elements distributed equally around a 1000 foot diameter circle. It was the first Wullenweber
Hi Lee, In an earlier post, W8JI stated that the "Wullenwever antenna was never a low-noise high performance antenna." Certainly that was true of the World War II-era German Wullenwever, but the 1960
Hi Peter, Gablingen Kaserne looks abandoned, there's not a single car in the parking lot! Not like in the "good old days" of the cold war in the 1970s and 1980s... http://www.amerika-in-augsburg.de/i
Despite the high cost of copper, there are still affordable sources of copper radial wire. For example, 16 AWG speaker wire can be purchased on eBay for $52.25 per one thousand feet including shippin
Hi Jeff, Thanks for pointing that out. I'm sure 60% copper clad aluminum will work just as well as copper radials. 73 Frank W3LPL -- Original message -- _________________ Topband Reflector
The web site is a little confusing about the quantity, but the deal is for fifty (50) sealed SPDT low power RF relays http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16510B gold contacts 2
Hi Bruce, I'm not aware of any reason why eight Magic-T splitters couldn't be added to an 8-circle BSEF array to enable installation of a second azimuth switch. My 160 meter BSEF array has plenty of