Topband: VK3ZL

[Robert Kavanagh]

Here is what Bob sent me a couple of years ago concerning his 
transmitting antenna:

My transmitting antenna is modest and laughable really..It consists of a 
40 foot push up TV mast....I have a 12 foot diameter spoked disk on top 
with a 70uh edge wound old broadcast coil 2 feet below the hat...Overall 
height of the vertical is 43 feet...The mast is insulated mounted on an 
old electric company 22kv insulator...I have a 10 turn coil 8 inches 
diameter and 1 inch turn spaced  at the base of the vertical to 
ground..I use this to resonate the vertical and match the heliax for 50 
0hms....I have 40 150 foot radials....I also have an inverted V on a 90 
foot mast near the house fed with 1/4 W/l tuned lines....I use this as a 
listening antenna and a multi band antenna....The little vertical is 
always 3-8db better than the V on 160...Tom JI and I made hundreds of 
tests over 10 years and the vertical is always consistent...I am lucky 
living remotely in the country on a couple of acres but my old age stops 
me from putting up a bigger vertical...

My first QSO with Bob was in 1995. At that time he told me that he had 
been on topband for 16 years.

He will be greatly missed.

73

Bob
VE3OSZ