160m
When I first came to N5AU the 160m antenna was a 1/4 wave
vertical made out of 25g. It had alot of wire
under it as well at the good soil of the area.
I was not as involved back then - but as I recall
this antenna was just not the "killer' signal
that was required.
The next thing that was tried was hanging some 1/2 wave sloping
dipoles off of the same tower - to see if the directivity
would help things out - it didn't really cut it either.
Then (and N5RZ) could give a bit better outline of how this
all came about - but the next project was to do something
like the 1/2 wave sloper array in the ARRL antenna book.
In looking around it was found that one of the towers was
guyed such that if we put up sloping dipoles that bisected
the guy angles we would have slopers in three directions.
Northest (europe), Southeast (South America) and West (pacific).
We then stacked up 190' of 25g - the guy wires were NOT broken up.
I recall the first night we fired this up - N5RZ got on and we
dialed into KH6CC and he was nice and loud on the west antenna and
when we switched to the southeast we were seeing about 20db or more
of front to back. So now we thoguht - ok - that is pretty good.
Well as time went by and we did contests and played with
this antenna - I can honestly say that this antenna was
by far the single most impressive antenna ever used at N5AU
on ANY band. We could wade into the biggest of the big pileups
on 160 and call one time and work the station. The hard part
was hearing him come back because it would be before anyone
stopped transmitting. We often got accused of running
BIG power on 160 - but we never did - in fact the only amp
that we had for 160 was an old beat up alpha 76a (two tubes)
that would put out almost 1100 watts on a good night.
This antenna made 160m really fun.
I have a recording I made when I was at HR6A in 1987 of
N5RZ switching through the antennas - it really shows the
pattern well. I will try to add it to my web page this
coming week. So keep checking - http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr
At the W5KFT-Ranch we have a simple inverted V at 145' and
although it works better that I think such an antenna
should I think that we could do better - or at least
it would be good to have a vertical as a choice.
73
--
George Fremin III
Austin, Texas C.K.U. "It is hard to be in one place at the same time."
K5TR -- Overheard at the TR-Log booth
512/416-7010 at the Dayton Hamvention
geoiii@bga.com
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