[SECC] 80 meter beam.

[David L. Thompson]

I found another box of magazines from the estate of W4UYC.  In a 1971 issue
of 73 there is an interesting article by W4AXE.  W4AXE was a big time
contester and DXer and was very active in contests in the late 60's and
early 70's.  JIM WA4PXP often guest oped at his station.

Doug was looking for a 75/80 antenna that would let him compete with the
W1/W2 gang and here is what he decided upon....He already had a 125 ft three
legged tower with a 6 element 20 meter beam on it.   He extended the boom of
the 20 meter beam (he does not say how much in the article ) and added a
vertical reflector and director and tied the wires down with a deadman made
from bricks.  The tricky part was to load the driven element (the tower) and
he worked long and hard on a gamma match.  The problem he faced was two
fold.  First the fat tower was much longer electrically than a half wave.
The second he was matching at the end not the center of the element (tower).

Once he got it working (he did have problems with the vertical wires during
rotation but that can be overcome if you have a clear space) he could step
over the W1/2's and work Dx.  He did very well (for those days) in either
the ARRL or CQ WW SSB.

Just some food for thought for those who dream!!!!

73 Dave K4JRB