Topband: New 160M high performance receiving antenna at W3LPL

[Joel Harrison]

Frank - the Magic T's were one of the changes as well as using a switching
circuit board that Mike, W9RE, made available. There was another feedpoint
change that Robye, W1MK suggested would be good to try but I haven't had an
opportunity to try it out and do some comparisons. We can discuss these in
Dayton.

I've had a number of people tell me they don't have the room for an 8 array
circle and I have always told them the BSEF array allows you to only use
four verticals for one direction (or two if reversed) so I'm very pleased
to see you highlight that in your write up.

73 Joel W5ZN


On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 9:20 AM, <donovanf at starpower.net> wrote:

> Hi Joel,
>
> Other than the three Magic T's, what other specific mods have you made to
> your 8-circles?
>
> Adding a T50-2 toroidal inductor and a BNC connector at the 50 ohm tap
> makes a quick job of adjusting resonance to exactly 1840 kHz.
>
> Much more work is planned later this year, building switchable 8-circles
> for 160 and 80 meters.
>
> Using one inch rebar for the base makes that job a snap, especially in my
> case where I must completely remove the antenna from my borrowed field
> every year and reinstall it in October.  The rebar can be easily removed
> with a sledge hammer.
>
> I discovered that I couldn't unzip my 16 AWG speaker wire when its cold, I
> was breaking wires!   No problem at all unzipping it at room temperature.
>
> Tks for all of your help!
>
> 73
> Frank
> W3LPL
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2013 06:29:18 -0600
> >From: Joel Harrison <w5zn at w5zn.org>
> >Subject: Re: Topband: New 160M high performance receiving antenna at W3LPL
> >To: donovanf at starpower.net
> >Cc: topband at contesting.com
> >
> >   Frank - Good stuff and very glad you made public your work on
> >   the array.
> >   It is good to see the array is working very well at W3LPL. I
> >   continue to have excellent performance from both of my BSEF
> >   arrays (160 & 80 meter versions).
> >   Robye (W1MK) and I had several conversations following
> >   publication of my work on BSEF's which resulted in use of
> >   Magic Tee's and a few other feed point mods.
> >   73 Joel W5ZN
> >
> >   On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 11:00 AM, <donovanf at starpower.net>
> >   wrote:
> >
> >     My new 160 meter Broad Side - End Fire (BSEF) receiving
> >     array is now in use and performing extremely well,
> >     significantly better than my 900 foot Beverages and full
> >     size 4-square transmitting antenna.
> >
> >     Like most of us who live in developed areas, my RFI
> >     environment has significantly degraded with the lack of
> >     effective RFI regulation in recent years.  Plasma TVs,
> >     ubiquitous poorly filtered switching power supplies and
> >     increasly popular high efficiency motors are steadily
> >     raising our noise floor.  With this new antenna 160 meters
> >     is delightfully quiet again at W3LPL!
> >
> >     Thanks to W8JI, W5ZN, N4HY and W1MK for their efforts in
> >     designing, optimizing and publishing the details of this
> >     wonderful high performance receiving antenna.  The BSEF
> >     array is now connected to the 160 meter input to my CW
> >     Skimmer, it now has significantly better sensitivity than
> >     when it was connected to my 900 foot NE Beverage.
> >
> >     The description and photos of my new BSEF array are here:
> >
> >     http://pvrc.org/bsef/bsef.html
> >
> >     73
> >     Frank
> >     W3LPL
> >     _________________
> >     Topband Reflector
> >
> >   --
> >   73 Joel W5ZN
> >
> >   www.w5zn.org
>



-- 
73 Joel W5ZN

www.w5zn.org