Worked a one ton full-size 75M 3-element rotary Yagi station last night

[K1JJ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA7YwbTsQTQ


I was down in the 75M DX window last night talking with an old friend, Nick LZ1JY.  He was very loud and said he was operating at the house of LZ5R in Bulgaria.

He said he was using a 2,000 pound 3 element 75M rotary Yagi. It took 8 minutes to turn 360 degrees on a rotator the size of a refrigerator.  

Notice in the video how flat the elements are due to a smart overhead trussing design.  There is a second twin Yagi to this 300' away that was on Japan when I talked to him. He dropped from S9+20 over to S7 when the two were compared.  Working FB.

The crane operator was excellent. Notice they installed it with the Yagi already attached to the top tower section. Smart planning. Amazing amount of time, energy amd money invested into this ham station.

T

[W1RKW]

Cool video! 

About 5 minutes in is another large array on the ground. Wonder what this is?

[k5mo]

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing! 

[AJ1G]

Just worked Nick from my mobile on 3799.5 while riding on Brent, W1IA’s coattails.  Nick gave me a 59, and Brent 59+15.

There are a lot of insanely huge antennas at play down in the 80 meter DX window from the huge Yagi that Dave G0EVY, hangs at something way over 100 feet in the air from a 30 ton construction crane to 7J4AAL’s full size 5 element Yagi in Japan:

https://www.google.com/search?q=g0evy+antenna&client=safari&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CcP9-Jt_1BWLaIkD_1pnwNZegMq0p-xNQMDTAs97UkcosX29YuWNpN843oC23PIEddBE1u9u--AIAg9syy_1q8nSMCQLYdZDBYzNenuKhIJ_16Z8DWXoDKsR4CcKaD4sDIkqEglKfsTUDA0wLBFViFwWJcctDCoSCfe1JHKLF9vWEeAnCmg-LAyJKhIJLljaTfON6AsRVYhcFiXHLQwqEgltzyBHXQRNbhFViFwWJcctDCoSCfbvvgCAIPbMEQ-WMSUvVYQ8KhIJsv6vJ0jAkC0RRV7HMz-bfNIqEgmHWQwWMzXp7hHgJwpoPiwMiWE1o7RDX8D-xA&tbo=u&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiM_6a1tdznAhWPhHIEHZUMDtAQuIIBegQIARAv&biw=375&bih=553&dpr=2#imgrc=LljaTfON6AvukM&imgdii=_6Z8DWXoDKvr6M

https://youtu.be/gGkdf6GrsvY

[K1JJ]

Yep, it's come a long, long way since Chuck K1KW ex-WA1EKV had up one of the first 3el 75M rotary Yagis in the mid 80's.  It was virtually unheard of back then.

Chris, I talked with a UK mobile that was very loud last night, Rob M0KPD.  He is doing basically the same thing as you and was 1 mile from the ocean. Later we listened for QRP stations and worked a bunch of 1 and 5 watt stations.  They are always lurking, just waiting for a chance.  The HuzMan and I always took time to call for them and have the big guns stand by from Eu.  They should do that in Eu more often and work mobiles and QRP like you.

T

[AJ1G]

Rob and I worked mobile to mobile in the 75 meter DX window about 0300 Eastern Time one morning just after Christmas.  I heard him with a bunch of the usual UK and EU guys that are typically on 3799 at their local sunrise gray line, when he first came on frequency he heard me but very weakly while I was not yet on
Stonington Point, when I got on the Point he said my signal came up two S units and we had a solid Q5 chat.  He runs QRO mobile, 400 watts don’t recall his antenna, think its roof mounted on a Ford Transit van.  At the time of our mobile to mobile QSO he was far inland.

[W1ITT]

One of the original 80 meter yagi early adopters on the East Coast was Arnold, W2HCW.  Back before USA stations could transmit below 3800 we'd operate split down into what is now the SSB DX window.  Arnold ran S-Line radios and, reportedly, a very  (ahem) conservatively built amplifier and ran the DX business as the master of ceremonies, whether an MC was needed or not.  But he got many more interested in putting out a large signal on the band.  Four-Square vertical arrays were becoming popular for the less wealthy. On the west coast, Mike K6MYC of KLM ( and M2) fame had a big one too and could be counted on for a cross country contact most any winter night.
My two-element horizontal driven wire array has served well for 13 years now, with low maintenance and CW/SSB segment capability.   When I lost a 100 foot pine that held up the west end of the catenary, I shot a line and ran it to another  big tree with no expense incurred.  But yeah, a yagi would be more fun.  The tree supported array only rotates once each day.
73 de Norm W1ITT

[Steve - K4HX]

An Arnold story.

http://amwindow.org/dx1/arnoldstory1.mp3