Doesn't Anyone Do Tower Work Anymore?

[Bill, KD0HG]

Here, hire this guy:

Edwin Armstrong on a 90-foot Blau-Knox tower, ca 1953.
WVWA-FM.

[W9GT]

Here, hire this guy:

Edwin Armstrong on a 90-foot Blau-Knox tower, ca 1953.
WVWA-FM.

yeah...well 90'....same as the top antenna here!  Finally finished after dark last night.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[K1JJ]

Ahhhh...  I especially like the boom with the pulleys and ropes hanging. Now you can work from the ground at your leisure on the 40M loops.

That's my favorite type of antenna structure - an aluminum boom with overhead trussing with pulleys to do what your heart desires. Many guys with towers never even consider that for effective multi-elelment arrays on the lower bands.

Good luck with the whole system, Jack. You're always loud here whenever I hear you working 75/40M DX or contests in the past.

T

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Beautiful set up Jack. You're gonna be the big strapper from 9-land!

[WA1GFZ]

Gee Jack where did you get that cool idea for a fixed boom?
I would have made it 40 feet wide if I had that tower then you could go 3 elements.

[WA2TTP Steve]

This guy has no problem doing tower work. Check out the nut riding the dish down.

[W9GT]

Gee Jack where did you get that cool idea for a fixed boom?
I would have made it 40 feet wide if I had that tower then you could go 3 elements.

Actually, I had that idea far earlier than our discussions, Frank, but your recommendations were duly noted and I'm sure that you are enjoying a similar arrangement.  I have not yet rebuilt the dual loops, but hope to complete them shortly.  I plan to use a similar configuration to Steve's switch box, however, my loops are diamond-shaped, as opposed to triangle/delta loops.  I had really good results with the loops last winter and they were in a very bedraggled state with really un-precise spacing and the tops close to the tower.  Hopefully, the new boom will help with that.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[WA1GFZ]

Jack,
Triangle will have a higher average height. My transfer relay is floating in the air. I think my RG11 lines are around 17 feet long. My loops ended up a bit shorter than calculated. I seem to remember just under 140 feet each.
Look at the thread. Steve and I had a number of inputs. I get a good VSWR across all of 40 meters.  They are fed at the center of the bottom.

[K1JJ]

Jack,

Looks like your antenna project timing is good for the lower bands. I've been closely listening to 40M and especially 75M DX windows at sunset. On Saturday I heard the JA's JUST starting to come thru on 3799. VERY early this year and usually start around Nov 7th.   The Euros were loud.

I'm finding the USA competition is keener than ever before. Guys are using more sophisticated receiving antennas and are hearing better than in the past. There were times before when I would listen to maybe one or two guys who could get a pileup going and actually hear the lower layers calling them. Now there are many guys from the states doing it into Europe.

Last night I started pulling out the "mothballs" from the station and fired up the various systems and rigs, getting ready and familiar with it all again. Gawd, I had forgotten how to get many of the things back on line, especially all the audio and RF switching boxes. I let the amps run wid fils only for a few hours and tested out the IMD, etc.  I definately need a cheat sheet to go from ssb to AM these days.

Anyway, hope to hold court into Eu on 75M soon. Then will chnge over to 75M AM and give that a go.

Seez ya on soon and hope to work tandem like before, OM.

T



I need to hire a technician with a good memory to maintain this stuff: