Topband: Battle Creek Special

[Kevin Nathan]

Hi All,

I would like to revisit this antenna again.  I tried building one of these
about a year and a half ago but had very mixed results with it.  It did not
seem to play at all well on 80 or 40 and was rather lackluster on 160.  I
believe the cause of its poor performance might have been its proximity to
my tower, the house, etc. and probably not very good trap design and
construction.  I am totally blind, had a friend help me solder the trap
innards and I really don't think we did a very good job.  Also, I had no
real way to verify their resonance points.  However, despite the excellent
performance of my Alpha Delta DX-A, I keep reading the reports of the
popularity of the Battle Creek Special on DXpeditions and can help but
wonder if this antenna, erected properly might not do better.  With that in
mind, I would like to ask some questions of the members of this list who
might have used this antenna in the past.

First, instead of running it parallel to my tower, I want to get someone to
come out here and get a line in the upper part of one of the taller trees on
my property.  I estimate that I could get a pulley perhaps 70 feet up as a
support for the vertical section.  This would be a good distance away from
both the tower and house.  Now, here are my questions.  In reading K1ZM's
very good article on constructing the wire version, he uses a deck ballaster
driven into the ground as the bottom support.  I could do this or use a
marine antenna mount to connect directly to an 8 foot ground rod.  Are there
any compelling arguments for either a direct feed against ground such as
with the rod or having the entire system float above ground as in Jeff's
design?

Also, in the matter of traps, is there anyone on the list who is good at
winding coax traps from whom I might buy one each for 80 and 40 meters so I
can make sure they are done correctly?

I would be very interested in some discussion of this antenna and the basic
questions I have concerning it's design.  Thanks for your feedback and very
73.
Kevin :)
Amateur Radio:  K7RX