The Summer of Antennas

[K1JJ]

Here is the original antenna construction thread:
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=47651.0


And here's an informative  thread about wire antennas, using RG-11, weatherproofing the coax, etc:
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=47597.0



Continue below for antenna completions and comments:


Hi All,

Summer and Fall were busy times for new antennas. Every 10-15 years I usually have to go thru them all and fix or design new ones. This time I added or modified ten new arrays.  Since April I have climbed the towers at least one hundred times. My weight went from a plump 210 pounds down to a lean 182 pounds. My goal is 175 pounds.  Also, my fear of climbing is totally gone.

The new antennas are all working and tuned...and homebrew.   I've been on the various bands and tested them against reference dipoles.  I also built up five homebrew ununs, some two stacked 2" donuts, to get good matches from the doghouses to the 75 ohm hardline runs back to the shack.

I have gone thru at least 10 rolls of waterproofing rubber tape and 33 scotch tape for waterproofing - as well as liquid sealent on top.  These connections will not leak and ruin the coax as in the past when using silicon RTV.

I have a few focused styles of operating, so these antennas are designed to cater to them. For example, I enjoy working a pileup into Europe (holding court) on both 75M and 40M, thus the fixed wire arrays. For rag chewing, a 160M dipole at 190' and the 75M FAN dipole at 100'  does the job well for local higher angle stuff. I don't want to be all things to all modes and bands, so I select a few things to be good at and stick with those.  The 10M - 20M bands are like shooting fish in a barrel, so I have more modest efforts in those areas.


Pics #1 and 2: These homebrew ununs are 2.5:1 ratio using #8 Teflon insulated wire.  The commercial ones I tried, made from enameled wire, burned up rather quickly.  They were $150+ so I saved a lot winding my own anyway.  I used some as combiners on 10M and 20M   - to phase a pair of antennas together.


Pic #3: I really like 2 element Yagis stacked. This is the 20M array on swing gates.  The front to back is about 25-30 dB due to the curtain effect - much higher than a single 2el Yagi.  Nice, wide beam coverage.

Tom, K1JJ

[K1JJ]

Pic #1:  Here's the 10M and 15M reference rotary dipoles.  When testing, the stacked Yagis need to show a front to back   -   and a few S units gain over these dipoles. Reference dipoles are very important for proving that the array is working right -   as well as for periodic maintenance checking.

Pic #2 shows the 20M reference dipole. At times when angles are high, it can rival the stacked arrays and be a good pattern "fill-in."

Pic #3 shows the 75M FAN wire dipole. It looks like a bowtie between towers. It uses 3.9 MHz and 3.6 MHz legs to provide an swr of < 1.5:1 across the complete 75M band. It is  100' high and a great go-to for local coverage.   I also use it for reference against the 75M delta loop array and 2el 75M Yagi South.   There is also a 40M reference dipole at 100' that cannot be seen in this pic.

 

[K1JJ]

Pic #1:  This is my prize antenna for working Europe on 75M.  A pair of delta loops at 190', on a 4" diameter, 40' long aluminum boom, switchable NE or SE using RG-11   feedline / stubs.   I spent a lot of time carefully tuning the F-B.  On most nights it shows at least 35-40 dB f-b into Europe. Many times the Europeans cannot hear me off the back at all.  I like this parasitic approach to tuning since it can be done on the ground with two relays.   I put on new #10 wire to replace the work hardened wire from 15 years ago that finally broke.

Pic #2:  This is a 10M  4 element  X 4 element Yagi stack fixed on Europe.  It shows several S-units over the 10M reference dipole when conditions are good for low angles. I used NEC-4 to design all the antennas and found this height and stacking distance to be optimum for a 4X4 10M stack in Eu.

Those are 40M full-size Yagis above the 10M stack.


Pic#3:  This shows the top 10M Yagi at the bottom of the pic.  The three stacked Yagis above it are 40M full-size beams at 190'/125'/60'.  The middle Yagi had a u-bolt loosen up and after two years cut the reflector element in half and it dropped to the ground.  I took it down and repaired it like new.  That 40M stack is my best performing antenna system into Eu/Asia.  But it is a bear to put up and take down working alone.  Each Yagi is close to 300 pounds.

[K1JJ]

I call this my South Tower.  All antennas beam south for Florida, the Caribbean, South America and long path into Asia.    (Actually 155 degrees headings)

You will see a single 2el 20M Yagi fixed south.    Also, a 40M wire Yagi supported by an aluminum boom.    And finally a 2el 75M wire Yagi at 130' using two inverted vees.

I have already worked Japan on 75M longpath using it.  Adding the reflector made a big difference, especially for nulling the noise off the back when receiving.  I don't need to use Beverage antennas anymore since the Yagis seem to hear a good S unit better for S/N.

The 40M wire Yagi hears extremely well. The ground slopes down about 300 feet to the south, so there is quite an enhancement going in that direction.

[K1JJ]

Pic #1:  The South Tower from another angle.  I am making more use of halyards (rope and pulleys)  so that I have to climb less for repairs of the wire antennas. I went thru about 1500' of rope this time around.


Pic#2:  Look carefully and you will see the feedpoint of the 160M dipole at 190'. One of the legs got chaffed by a tree. I then made the support leg out of 1/4" aircraft cable and it will never chaff again.  It is fed with 1" copper hardline and uses a balun.

Pic #3: There is 5 1/2 year old Yaz.  I always let his fur grow out during the winter. He needs to lose 5 pounds. He runs in the woods every day but gets fed people food too often.  Good quality potatoes, peas, chicken, broccoli, etc.    I just trained him to pick up all his toys at night and put them into the toy box.  In the morning he takes them out and scatters them around the house.  Too smart for his own good... :-)

That's it guys!  I hope to be on AM more often since my last climb was Dec 1st and almost got frostbite on my fingers.  Hopefully we can generate more activity on the bands and here on AmFone.

73,

Tom, K1JJ

[km6sn]

Hi,
the two Nano VNAs, They have compared very well to lab quality instruments. I completely trust their readings.
Rod

[K9MB]

That is a great body of work for a Summer, Tom.
I will have questions, even though I followed progress in real time.
First one is- what are those cores for your UNUN?
Maybe they are your original cores rewound, but thought you might know what they are? #43?, #52?, #61?
 Looks like at least a double stack.
Does the ferrite get hot when illuminated?
More later.
73, Mike

PS: Yaz looks like he is ready for some Winter time activities with you on ground level.
He exudes “Good Dog Vibe in every pic. I can tell that he is your main
Muse. 😎

[K1JJ]

Rod,

Yes, I use a nanoVNA for detailed analysis.  But when climbing the tower and  doing tuning on the fly, I prefer the MFJ-259B due to simplicity and ability to see the display better in bright sunlight.


Mike,

I used type 61 for the combiners and feedline matching -  and  type 43 for the ferrite bead chokes, IIRC.  Most are double stacked core 2" diameter donuts, though some are single where I don't expect to run much power like on 10M / 15M.

I've put full power thru all of them and have not seen any change in swr readings. There has not been any feedline voltage or current breakdowns so far on any antenna, even with the RG-11 coax.   (Except for the enamel wire commercial combiner as mentioned)   The "in field" matching ununs have produced some outstanding swr readings at the shack. It pays to be able to tweak the overall match with an unun, if needed.    I also added some fine tuning on 10M for the combiner by adding a 35 pF disk cap from input to ground.  This produced a 1:1 match. 10M is not easy to work with when phasing two Yagis and then running this to the shack with 400'  of 75 ohm underground hardline.


There is also a 40M reference dipole at 100'  in the vicinity of the  broadband 75M FAN dipole. This makes a reference dipole for every band from 160M-10M.   Reference dipoles give good pattern fill-in coverage as well as a way to know how any gain antennas are working. I use them all the time and love just listening while rapidly switching from dipole to array to sort out the conditions and antenna performance.   I should take a pic of the antenna coaxial switching array in the shack. Also, there are nine rig switch positions. All rigs homebrew except for the FT-1000D.  With all the options, it makes it quite sporting to quote the old Barry Goldwater SkyNeedle ad: "Where in the world would you like to talk today?"

T

[K9MB]

Tom,
Type #61 is perfect for the application. Great choice.
Low loss and the Curie temp is over 300 degrees C, so it will not collapse if it does warm up.
Sounds like you have a great design. How many in your stack? Are they FT240-61 or bigger?

[K1JJ]

Tom,
Type #61 is perfect for the application. Great choice.
Low loss and the Curie temp is over 300 degrees C, so it will not collapse if it does warm up.
Sounds like you have a great design. How many in your stack? Are they FT240-61 or bigger?

Mike,

Yes, the combiner and matching ununs use 2" diameter FT240-61 donuts.   All the antennas use two in a stack except for the 10/15M antennas. I run less power on those bands so a single core is FB.

T

[K1JJ]

Having lots of fun!    Here's a rare occurance:

Using the NE/SW delta loops at 190' for 75M, I've been on a rampage working European pileups at night in the 75M DX window.  Last night the Russian telemetry beacon on 3806 was exceptionally loud at 30 dB over S9, telling me propagation was long, strong and low angle.  It was about 1AM local time last night nearing Euro sunrise....

I was chatting and checking front to back performance with some Euro stations, switching back and forth from NE to SW.  One of the Germans gave a -42 dB f-b reading and another could not copy me off the back to give any reading at all.  I was very pleased to say the least.  That's what low angles can do sometimes.... makes gain antennas really play.

Then a ZL (New Zealand) station put a DX spot on the internet saying he could hear me when I was beaming SW, towards Mexico.  He gave S2-3  beaming Europe and S7 towards him.  If I knew I would have called in that direction.  I will do it next time...

Here's the email I got from him:

"Hello Thomas,
When you were talking to the EU station you were 5x2 to 3 and when you beamed over XE you were 5x7 here in Northern ZL. I was beaming over NA and the middle of my lobe 45 degrees, being a 4 sqr fairly broad.
You have a great station.
Regards
Nick Wallace   ZL1IU"

Reports like this on 75M make it all worthwhile.... :-)


Here's the DX cluster spots  for the 75M DX window.  When Euros make spots, the pileups can grow fast.  Unfortunately the activity levels are very low now. We desperately need more folks getting on the bands.


DX SPOTS:

showing spots for DX call: K1JJ

de            dx   freq            obs                     time

ZL1IU    K1JJ   3789    s 2 and over XE s7   0651z 09 Jan
W9BTM    K1JJ   3789    20/9 into sheboygan tom great signal   0647z 09 Jan
G2BUJ    K1JJ   3789    Tnx for the Fab QSO Tom 5/9+20   0644z 09 Jan
F4CIM    K1JJ   3789    LSB JN26ba -> FN31   0635z 09 Jan
ON5WO    K1JJ   3789    TNX QSO 5-9 +20   0601z 09 Jan
DL4CQ    K1JJ   3785    CQ Tnx TOM   0636z 08 Jan
EA3AKP    K1JJ   3785    CQ EU NICE CPY   0629z 08 Jan
DJ9UN    K1JJ   3785    LSB JO30ef -> FN31sp   0618z 08 Jan
ON5WO    K1JJ   3785    TNX QSO 5-9+20   0606z 08 Jan
F4CIM    K1JJ   3785    LSB JN26ba -> FN31   0559z 08 Jan
HB9TWK    K1JJ   3785    call heurope   0555z 08 Jan
IU1IPB    K1JJ   3790    FB : 80 W and a windom, from my side.   0657z 07 Jan
IZ0CKJ    K1JJ   3790      0637z 07 Jan
OE8FOX    K1JJ   3790    Calling Europe,big Signal   0630z 07 Jan
F4CIM    K1JJ   3790    LSB JN26ba -> FN31   0629z 07 Jan
MM0GTU    K1JJ   3790    cq tnx qso tom 5/9+ 73   0617z 07 Jan
SP3HDU    K1JJ   3790    Tnx Tom HNY and DX1   0545z 07 Jan
F4HEC    K1JJ   3794      0357z 07 Jan
G0NVD    K1JJ   3794    CQ CQ   0204z 07 Jan
DK1NO    K1JJ   3793    with grp tom 59   2205z 31 Dec
LX1UN    K1JJ   3789    LSB JN29vw -> FN42   2131z 28 Dec
ON5WO    K1JJ   3791    TNX QSO 5 9+10   0612z 28 Dec
F8ARK    K1JJ   3791    cq eu   0606z 28 Dec
ON5WO    K1JJ   3790    TNX QSO 5 9+10   0602z 21 Dec
OE3KDC    K1JJ   3790    LSB JN77lt -> FN31sp   0601z 21 Dec
DK3TG    K1JJ   3790    59+5 near Munich   0550z 21 Dec
G4ELI    K1JJ   3799    Very loud   0458z 03 Nov
I5ZSS    K1JJ   3799    LSB JN53ku -> FN42   0450z 03 Nov
ES5TTT    K1JJ   3799      0500z 02 Nov
PB9FN    K1JJ   3799      0452z 02 Nov
ON5WO    K1JJ   3799    TNX QSO 5 9+20   0440z 02 Nov
IU3OCN    K1JJ   7149    Cq ww   0359z 29 Oct
YL2GB    K1JJ   3796    tnx qso 73!   0629z 24 Jan
SM4IVE    K1JJ   3799    59? on dipole   0625z 24 Jan
F5BQV    K1JJ   50313    IN87SN<>FN31SP   1238z 27 Jun
YO6FNF    K1JJ   3790    Big signal


Vely, Bery FB, OM!


T

[K9MB]

Having lots of fun!    Here's a rare occurance:

Using the NE/SW delta loops at 190' for 75M, I've been on a rampage working European pileups at night in the 75M DX window.  Last night the Russian telemetry beacon on 3806 was exceptionally loud at 30 dB over S9, telling me propagation was long, strong and low angle.  It was about 1AM local time last night nearing Euro sunrise....

I was chatting and checking front to back performance with some Euro stations, switching back and forth from NE to SW.  One of the Germans gave a -42 dB f-b reading and another could not copy me off the back to give any reading at all.  I was very pleased to say the least.  That's what low angles can do sometimes.... makes gain antennas really play.

Then a ZL (New Zealand) station put a DX spot on the internet saying he could hear me when I was beaming SW, towards Mexico.  He gave S2-3  beaming Europe and S7 towards him.  If I knew I would have called in that direction.  I will do it next time...

Here's the email I got from him:

"Hello Thomas,
When you were talking to the EU station you were 5x2 to 3 and when you beamed over XE you were 5x7 here in Northern ZL. I was beaming over NA and the middle of my lobe 45 degrees, being a 4 sqr fairly broad.
You have a great station.
Regards
Nick Wallace   ZL1IU"

Reports like this on 75M make it all worthwhile.... :-)


Here's the DX cluster spots  for the 75M DX window.  When Euros make spots, the pileups can grow fast.  Unfortunately the activity levels are very low now. We desperately need more folks getting on the bands.


DX SPOTS:

showing spots for DX call: K1JJ

de            dx   freq            obs                     time

ZL1IU    K1JJ   3789    s 2 and over XE s7   0651z 09 Jan
W9BTM    K1JJ   3789    20/9 into sheboygan tom great signal   0647z 09 Jan
G2BUJ    K1JJ   3789    Tnx for the Fab QSO Tom 5/9+20   0644z 09 Jan
F4CIM    K1JJ   3789    LSB JN26ba -> FN31   0635z 09 Jan
ON5WO    K1JJ   3789    TNX QSO 5-9 +20   0601z 09 Jan
DL4CQ    K1JJ   3785    CQ Tnx TOM   0636z 08 Jan
EA3AKP    K1JJ   3785    CQ EU NICE CPY   0629z 08 Jan
DJ9UN    K1JJ   3785    LSB JO30ef -> FN31sp   0618z 08 Jan
ON5WO    K1JJ   3785    TNX QSO 5-9+20   0606z 08 Jan
F4CIM    K1JJ   3785    LSB JN26ba -> FN31   0559z 08 Jan
HB9TWK    K1JJ   3785    call heurope   0555z 08 Jan
IU1IPB    K1JJ   3790    FB : 80 W and a windom, from my side.   0657z 07 Jan
IZ0CKJ    K1JJ   3790      0637z 07 Jan
OE8FOX    K1JJ   3790    Calling Europe,big Signal   0630z 07 Jan
F4CIM    K1JJ   3790    LSB JN26ba -> FN31   0629z 07 Jan
MM0GTU    K1JJ   3790    cq tnx qso tom 5/9+ 73   0617z 07 Jan
SP3HDU    K1JJ   3790    Tnx Tom HNY and DX1   0545z 07 Jan
F4HEC    K1JJ   3794      0357z 07 Jan
G0NVD    K1JJ   3794    CQ CQ   0204z 07 Jan
DK1NO    K1JJ   3793    with grp tom 59   2205z 31 Dec
LX1UN    K1JJ   3789    LSB JN29vw -> FN42   2131z 28 Dec
ON5WO    K1JJ   3791    TNX QSO 5 9+10   0612z 28 Dec
F8ARK    K1JJ   3791    cq eu   0606z 28 Dec
ON5WO    K1JJ   3790    TNX QSO 5 9+10   0602z 21 Dec
OE3KDC    K1JJ   3790    LSB JN77lt -> FN31sp   0601z 21 Dec
DK3TG    K1JJ   3790    59+5 near Munich   0550z 21 Dec
G4ELI    K1JJ   3799    Very loud   0458z 03 Nov
I5ZSS    K1JJ   3799    LSB JN53ku -> FN42   0450z 03 Nov
ES5TTT    K1JJ   3799      0500z 02 Nov
PB9FN    K1JJ   3799      0452z 02 Nov
ON5WO    K1JJ   3799    TNX QSO 5 9+20   0440z 02 Nov
IU3OCN    K1JJ   7149    Cq ww   0359z 29 Oct
YL2GB    K1JJ   3796    tnx qso 73!   0629z 24 Jan
SM4IVE    K1JJ   3799    59? on dipole   0625z 24 Jan
F5BQV    K1JJ   50313    IN87SN<>FN31SP   1238z 27 Jun
YO6FNF    K1JJ   3790    Big signal


Vely, Bery FB, OM!


T

Tom.
Wow! Great results from those Deltas!

I can see only one problem with them.
It is hard to imagine better performance that getting a choice of path to down under on 75 meters….

You may be near the crest of Everest- metaphorically, so if you did improve antennas significantly, you may be forced to go QRP to increase the level of difficulty…😉😂😂
Still, there are a lot of us who would not mind that difficulty, though almost nobody is willing to pay the price of time and effort to get to this level…
Well done! 😎 73, Mike

[AJ1G]

Great results and great fun Tom. The 80/75 meter DX window has been pretty hot of late.  I’m working at the opposite end of the antenna complexity spectrum with my attempts at mobile low band DXing.  The 3790-3800 DX window. was on fire last night for a couple of hours.  Called CQ DX from the Tacoma with 100 watts to the Webster Bandspanner from the Westerly RI Home Depot parking lot and worked 3 EU stations in a row wirh reports up to S7 from stations whe came back to my CQs. Also been working VK2ZF Rich on 3793 around 1030 to 1130 UTC from Stonington Point, he is a regular most every morning our time on that frequency.  Also have made it all the way to Kan-San 7J4AAL in Japan on the long path gray line on 3802 around 2100-2200 UTC just before and at local sunset here from Stonington Point and also from the Barn Island boat launch ramp about a mile from my house.  The boat launch  has a nice long reach of salt to the southeast and is a very quiet location for reception. This time of year with no one else around I can put the Tacoma right up to the edge of the water on the ramp and on occasion have tried letting the bottom of the rims of the front tires get wet. That definitely brings the salt into the equation for the counterpoise, it significantly shifted the tuning of the Bandspanner from where it was with the tires out of the water a few feet up the ramp.  Kan-San and a few other JAs are on 3802 most every late afternoon this time of year, the grey line is in optimum alignment for the long path to Japan now. Of course his 5 element two ton full size 80 meter beam at about 180 feet is doing most of the work to my PW little mobile!

[K1JJ]

FB, Chris!

You have that mobile working very well.  I've heard you on with it a lot lately working DX. I wonder if you have worked your UK counterpart, Rob M4?  75M mobile, car to car?    He has his sweet spot parking places on the water.  He is as loud as many Euro home stations at times.

I worked a big Euro 40M pileup yesterday after sunset for a good hour.  The 2x2x2 40M Yagi stack was performing FB due to the low angles.  As I was clearing out, a VU from India called me at 59.  I had to axe him twice if he was really from India. Evidently it's not a big deal to work India on 40M when it is open. I'm so used to 75M. He said my stack was 3 S-units  louder than the reference dipole at 100' high. Now we're talking!

Later at 12:30 AM I switched to 75M and started another Euro pileup until about 2:30 AM my time.  It was thick and narley.  Having too much fun lately. Pulling out the weak ones and filtering out the crowd is really good exercise for the brain.

I always pause and listen for < 100 watt stations OR guys who have never worked USA.  The lowest layer of PW stations start to call and they sound tickled pink to make the trip and get the attention.  Usually the big stations drown them out.

I finally gave a listen for Russians named Vlad, driving yellow Yugos with wives named Svetlana. But that seemed to go over everyone's head...   And, telling Kan-san from Japan that he was as strong as Godzilla drew dead air.  I understand in Japan they have forgotten Godzilla or maybe it's like telling us we are as strong as King Kong, I dunno.  :-)

A problem:  They give you a honeymoon of about a week, but after that the regular check-ins expect you to remember names and calls from past contacts. No way I can do that so gotta start some kind of electronic log.  My memory is just too short otherwise... :-)

Maybe someone can recommend a free Windows based logging program?

T