20M AM

[flintstone mop]

Hello everyone
MOP radio duz get on the air waves once in a while. Lot of adjustments to life right now. My wondeful XYL is very understanding to the radio world. I think inviting her to the shack, she'll see the connection using the radio to talk to other people who have the same interest. Your typical Philippine household might have a flourescent light and a TV and a telephone. Running water....maybe. The pictures of nice houses and BMW's we see are the handful of the wealthy living in Manila.

Radio Question: 20m AM seems like it's a lot of fun to talk to other folks beyond the 400 mile barrier of typical 160, 40M QSO's
After 7PM 20M goes to sleep. The "WINDOW" seems to be between 5P and 7P There have been QSO's where Ashtabula is in there somewhere and I'm talking to somebody in Nebraska. I don't  want to go through a lot chatter about the propagation characteristics of 20M.
BUT I am wondering whether to build a 4-square using verticals (this month QST....very nice effective aerial using an expensive Collins built phaser / switcher) OR just be happy with my 70 foot high dipole and take my chances with propagation.
I still like to experiment and diddle and even make a Ham op rich by pruchasing his magic box. Is this sleepy time of 20M due to the low sunspots? I thought it was a World Wide band 24 hours per day. OK I'm sounding stupid here but I'm just exploring other avenues to chit and chat with good 'ole AM..........How's 15 been? I promise to start reading this BB more ...........thanks

fred

[w3jn]

Fred - there just ain't a lot of activity on 20 anymore, SSB or AM (at least, not as much as there used to be).

You need to join the gangstas on 75.  Even then, conditions are sporadic... you can be in a QSO with the NE gang and 5 minutes later all you can hear is Skip in Minnesota.

BTW congrats on the wedding.  Bet you need a shoehorn to chisel that smile off your face now.   When we gonna get you over so the wives can habla in Tagolog?

73 John

[WD8BIL]

Hi Fred ... congrats on the soulmate !!!!

3 Sloping dipoles on 20 meters (at 120 degrees apart) around the tower or a tree are easy and work FB ifn ya just wanna feel out the band. Simple relay switching to the one wanted is all ya need. Quick, easy and inexpensive !!

[K1JJ]

Hi Fred.

Congrats on the XYL.

For a very effective 20M antenna, consider a 2el wire Yagi facing west.  There's nothing to the east of you but ocean, so a broad [75 degrees wide lobe] 2el Yagi will do really FB to the west.

To do it right, find two trees spaced 35' apart minimum. Hoist a 10' piece of 2" PVC pipe into EACH tree as high and flat as possible. (Two bridles) Use a piece of aircraft type cable from Home Depot that attaches to each end of the pipe and connects at its center to the tree.  You can pull each PVC pipe up into the trees with a simple rope or cable thru a branch crotch... bow and arrow work.

Have previously installed a rope and pulley at each end of the pipes... 4 pulleys.  You now have a perfect textbook supporting structure that can be raised or lowered from the ground -  plus the wires raised and lowered themselves using the pulleys.  Flat, straight and spaced squarely is important for best f-b and gain.

Put up a standard coax fed dipole on one set of pullies and a 34' long wire reflector on the other two. At least 35' high will work FB.  10' spacing between the elements is FB.    You will now have a f-b which kills atmospheric noise off the back for better hearing, in additon to 5db forward gain over a dipole - plus a take off angle (28 degrees) which is very usefull for "local" USA, etc, on 20M.

If and when Eur on AM occurs, you can either lower the reflewctor for bi-directional coverage or reverse the reflector and dipole positions (lower the wires with the pulleys] for East coverage.

If you have a tower filled with other HF antennas, the tree idea here will keep the 20M Yagi out of the field.  I have this same system described above on 75M stretched between two towers at 140', but using aluminum bridles rather than PVC.


73,
T

[km1r]

Tom:

Do you remember (if I remember the call correctly) K7CXB, (Steve Hardash) out near Phoenix?  

Back in the early 60's he ran a BIG full gallon on AM with a 6 element wide space 20m monoband quad at around 120 feet...(not a typo).

Real phat audio, I think he ran  a pair of 4-1000's, it was much ballsier than most broadcast stations...

Sadly, he is a SK now... wish I had taped him

Mike
KM1R

[K1JJ]

Tom:

Do you remember (if I remember the call correctly) K7CXB, (Steve Hardash) out near Phoenix?  

Back in the early 60's he ran a BIG full gallon on AM with a 6 element wide space 20m monoband quad at around 120 feet...(not a typo).

Real phat audio, I think he ran  a pair of 4-1000's, it was much ballsier than most broadcast stations...

Sadly, he is a SK now... wish I had taped him

Mike
KM1R

Wow, that's quite a message...  :lol:

Can't say I remember him, Mike - But that's the way to do it, IF you can pull it off.   He probably had a 6db power advantage over the average AM station of the time PLUS maybe another 8 db in antenna performance [depending upon the angle] over the average dipole/tribander at 35' station.

This all adds up to 15-20db louder [and the ability to hear 8-10db better] than the average AM station. These guys stand out to open and close the band and also help the weaker stations to make contacts they otherwise could not.

Thank goodness he was in a non-icing part of the corntry with a 6el 20M quad... :grin:

T

[flintstone mop]

Hello All
Thanks for the replies.
The feedback about 20M band usage makes me think about just keeping what I have and go for it.
Hey ....JJ who is that hairy dude in the pics?????

Fred