Hi Mike. Here's the description, longer than necessary, but that's
normal for me :-)
80 & 40 are covered with fanned dipoles, inverted vees really. What I
started out with back in the CNY area in the mid-60's was a 20 foot mast
on a chimney mount at home. The reason for this was to keep the 80 Meter
antenna within the confines of a 100' x 130' lot, with the house offset
to one side, and the 11.6 KV lines in about 25 feet from the street. The
dipoles also are the guys for the mast in this configuration.
I have duplicated this antenna system in every location I lived in except
for a few barracks whilst in the Navy (and the ships, of course). I aim
for a minimum feedpoint height of 40 feet, 60 feet if I can do it. My
present system uses a pine "A"-Frame mast with the base up against the
back of the barn. Both dipoles are fed off the same coax (165' of Belden
8214), and the mast is about 90 feet back in the lot. I have a
strangely-shaped lot here, 165 feet of road frontage, 210 feet at the
back, but not parallel, so one property line is 180 feet and the other is
140 feet with a 25 foot dogleg. It's actually 1 1/2 lots that were
combined some time back.
The Bergen Swamp reference is only half joking! This end of the village
was filled in and recovered from the Swamp (the only remaining habitat
for the Mausauga, or Pygmy Rattlers in WNY!) back when the NY Central was
run through here in the 1850's Even with the extensive network of
drainage canals, the water table is within 5 feet of the surface in most
years, 8 feet in very dry ones. My sump pump runs all year long. My
ground has to be described as Great! Elevation is 610' ASL with hills of
900' - 1000' ASL about 8 Miles south of me and 20 miles west of me, and a
750' elevation (drumlin) about 5 miles North. Nothing higher to the East
for about 40 miles. The terrain drops off after the drumlin in the Town
of Sweden from 750' ASL to 246 'ASL at the shores of Lake Ontario, that
being Mean Pool Elevation (so sez the Coast Guard)
Location plays a big part of my success from here, and when I set up a
Kenwood TS-680S at 100 watts about 5 years ago, I was accused of running
an amp! Bob, W2XG runs an SB-200 on 75 Meters. He's about 1.6 miles
from me on the same terrain, and he keeps skeds with the Kodak Snowbirds
that all relocated to the Carolinas and Georgia. He's head & shoulders
above the QRM even in the General section of 75 Meters for the skeds.
It's really strange in a way, ow my interests went to the QRP end of the
Amateur spectrum. I built a 1/2-KW AM station back at home before I went
into the Navy, and ran legal-limit club stations wherever I was
stationed, but when I got back from VQ9-land (WB2VUO/VQ9C, Jan 1974 - Feb
1975), I went QRP and stayed there. Go figure!
I seem to always have Ten Tec gear around, and seem to pick up Triton
IV's and Argosy's on a regular basis. Now it is Argo 556's, on my 3rd
and counting! If I wouldn't swap them off all the time, I might keep one
longer than 6 months. (Anyone have a basket-case Triton IV, cheap? I'm
getting withdrawal symptoms!)
Look for me, and Mark, N2VPK on the QRPTTF this weekend. It'll be a
hilltop this time, and a 3-wave Vee beam for 15 Meters, but still the
Argo 556.
72/73, Keith, WB2VUO, 100% QRP from the Great Bergen Swamp of WNY
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