Force 12 Dual Band 40M-80M Antenna

[Barry Merrill]

I inadvertently blew the balun on my 80Mtr Dipole just before the start
of SS, and later, when I realized I needing nearby multipliers I crossed
my fingers and loaded my 40MTR Force 12 Rotary Dipole thru the Johnson
KW Matchbox and WOW!  Not only did the SWR go to 1:1 smoothly, it really
played well.  I made 89 QSOs on 80, and only three times did I have to
repeat anything, only twice did I not get thru on the first call, and
over half of the time I beat someone on that first call!  I was running
the Alpha, and did not make a serious attempt to run 80 with it, and it
wouldn't go up to 3830 for SSB, but I was overjoyed that it worked at
all!  It even had noticeable directionality too! 
Merrilly yours, 
Barry Merrill w5gn at airmail.net

>From syam at Glue.umd.edu (De Syam)  Tue Nov  5 21:30:18 1996
From: syam at Glue.umd.edu (De Syam) (De Syam)
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 1996 16:30:18 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Sweepstakes and 40 meters
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.95.961105162221.16337E-100000 at z.glue.umd.edu>

I found my 40 meter beam worked better during daylight than usual,
even working the likes of Colorado at high noon!  But no DX called
me.  At night 40 had few strong signals.  KE3Q, however, who beat
me by 100 QSO's, had about 1000 of his 1200+ QSO's on 40, so his
combination of antennas for that band seems to be what Doctor Ionosphere
ordered for this weekend. 

80 was my bread-and-butter band, however, with 735 of my 1174 QSOs
taking place there, including plenty of W6/W7 stations in the QRP
category.  On 80 the first night I was called by five Europeans
who wanted a number for the Ukranian contest (which went from Sat 1200Z -
Sunday 1200Z).  I had given out a few numbers in that contest on 20
Saturday AM so guess they thought I was still in it.  Of course it
helps to have a 3-el Yagi at 140 feet on 80, but on the other hand,
the Europeans called even when it was pointed west!

                                  Very 73,

                                 Fred Laun, K3ZO