Topband: What antenna would you build?

[Dino Darling]

Sorry, Tim's article was August 1994.


Dino - KX6D
________________________________
From: Topband <topband-bounces+dino=kx6d.com at contesting.com> on behalf of Dino Darling <dino at kx6d.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2022 10:33:28 AM
To: Stan Stockton <wa5rtg at gmail.com>; w5zn at w5zn.org <w5zn at w5zn.org>
Cc: topband at contesting.com <topband at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: What antenna would you build?

Thanks Tree and the rest!

I don't contest for two reasons; I lack talent and patience. No way I'm sitting in a chair past 2 hours! Besides, my ears are shot thanks to the US Navy (but I'm not complaining!).

My goal here, being new to Topband, is to see what the experienced operator has learned over these many years and apply it to my operation. If someone bought their first Jeep and wanted to build it, I would be invaluable to them based on my decades of experience.

A 3/8 wave vertical was suggested as well and Tim's antenna could be added later. I also found Tim's QST articles from 1996 that illustrates the sloper antenna I saw.

I have a custom built, single tube, dual-band amplifier for 160/80 and I plan to use it, so I'll have some gain for TX. I'll continue my education on RX antennas!


Dino - KX6D
________________________________
From: Stan Stockton <wa5rtg at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2022 9:55:41 AM
To: w5zn at w5zn.org <w5zn at w5zn.org>
Cc: Dino Darling <dino at kx6d.com>; topband at contesting.com <topband at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: What antenna would you build?

Different people have differing views on the definition of a serious antenna.

An 8 circle with 8 directions of BSEF verticals would definitely be serious.

If you wanted one tower and didn’t want to do the work to install a minimum of 100 radials or more I would consider one tall tower with elevated radials.  The best antenna I ever had in Arkansas was 192 feet of 25G which I put up in 1980.  This tower was shunt fed with the feed point at 60 feet and had 9 radials (3 per leg) taking up several acres  with the ends pretty high.

Nobody had a four square back then so competition was not as great, but it was a great performer.  I think it was better than most serious antennas at the time which would be quarter wave verticals with extensive, on ground, radial systems.

That antenna for transmit and a half dozen thousand foot Beverages would be a serious 160m setup even today.

73… Stan, K5GO



Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 24, 2022, at 10:34 AM, w5zn at w5zn.org wrote:
>
> Hi Dino,
>
> I started with a single 1/4 wave vertical as Tree notes and it worked extremely well for years, however after a period of time I had a desire to upgrade the single vertical to a system that offered some gain on TX. I came across the array that Tim, K3LR, mentioned in "Low Band DX'ing" that describes his systems and discovered I could build this array around the existing 1/4 wave vertical and achieve 4-square performance in a smaller footprint area. I have now used the array for four years and the performance has been outstanding. After reading the info regarding this array in Low Band DX'ing I documented some additional details of my experience that were presented at the Dayton Antenna Forum and also published in the National Contest Journal. Copies of those documents can be found here:
>
> https://www.kkn.net/dayton2018/2018_Dayton_Antenna_Forum-160_meter_TX_Array.pdf
>
> https://ncjweb.com/features/sepoct18feat.pdf
>
> As Tree notes, the very first step is to determine exactly what your objective is. The five element parasitic array has met my objectives for both contest and DX activities.
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN
>
>
>> On 2022-03-23 22:38, Dino Darling wrote:
>> If you may and you are willing to indulge me; if you were about to buy
>> 5-acres with no neighbors or restrictions and wanted to erect a
>> serious 160M antenna system, what would you build and why? We can pass
>> on the Radio Arcala discussion; nobody's that cool.
>> A loaded 4-square? 1/4 wave stick (or longer)? Phased dipoles? (fill
>> in the blank)?
>> I've seen a 200' tower with three phased dipoles tilted on end. The
>> end of one side of the dipole was anchored and insulated at the top of
>> the tower and came down like guy cables. About half way down was the
>> feedpoint, were an isolated anchor cable continued down the same path
>> to ground (like a guy cable). However, the second half of the dipole
>> was pulled back to the base of the tower, from the center feedpoint
>> insulator. It looked like an arrowboard chevron or a regular dipole
>> that was turned 90 degrees on its side. The coax was horizontal back
>> to the tower. There were three of these spaced 120 degrees apart and
>> fed with a phasing network to steer it. I understand it works great.
>> So what would you build?
>> Dino - KX6D
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