Topband: Battle Creek Special

[George & Marijke Guerin]

Kevin:

How tall is your tower?  Can you either
A. hang an inverted L off the tower or a tall tree.
B. shunt feed the tower?  If it is 60+ feet tall with a couple of yagis on
top, either will give you better performance than a BCSpecial alone, since
it is only 50 feet tall and is top loaded on 80 and 160.

Have you put down at least 30 radials 65 feet long or more?  Without a good
ground any vertical will not play well.

As to RG8 coaxial traps,  K1ZM's traps are heavy, but you should contact
Jeff direct for further advice.  The current BC Specials use coils and
capacitors (made from RG213) for the traps which are much lower loss and are
easily tuned to the bottom of both 80 and 40 meters.

Please contact me direct off line for further BCSpecial information if you
want current design data, etc.

Good luck,    73,    George    K8GG    gmguerin at voyager.net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Nathan" <k7rx at comcast.net>
To: <topband at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 11:32 PM
Subject: Topband: Battle Creek Special


> 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
>
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