Breaks World QRP Record
The driven element, or DE, is shown with red line next to it. And white indicates the 50 Ohm RG58 coax leading to the ham shack. As you can clearly see the shape of the driven element is irregular, looks like pizza shaped. I used some surplus telephone house wire for both elements. The DE was cut useing the formula, DE = 1005/Freq. in mHz. I cut it too long by design, and adjusted both elements for best SWR useing my MFJ-249 SWR Analyzer. I need to re-check SWR, as the wind can stretch wires. The separation between the DE & reflector is about 6 ft and also uneven. Connections are regular PL-259's and SO-239's. If a tree branch was'nt available, I made use of strings tied to other branches off to either side.
The reflector is behind the DE, and I'm not sure what
shape to call this! The formula for the reflector is REF = 1030/Freg.
in Mhz. Both quad loops are around 12 ft off the ground at center. The
beam is pointed to the northeast, favoring Europe. Soon I will see how
it works off the back towards New Zeland, & Austrailia.
Now my perpose for putting up such an antenna isnt
to make fun of expensive beam antennas, or prove anything.
I guess it does show that if you are limited in choices
of antennas, or concerned that your station isnt "good enough", forget
that. Just get on the air and check the bands. Check them early and check
them in late afternoon, & at sunset. Check them late at night if your
up at the wee hours.
It does help to set goals, and make plans on how to
reach your goals, while haveing fun. As for me, I just happened to notice
that the Miles per watt distance records for 12 & 17 meter ham bands
were begging to be broken. Made sure I had the best antenna I could put
up cheap & fast. And then tuned it for flat SWR's.
On February 2nd 2000 at 21:24Z CO8LY I heard CQ'ing on 24.896mHz, with spoty responce. That gave me a chance to lower my power & try milliwatts. He heard me at 50mW right away, and we had a QSO. Then four minutes later after he had another caller I called back at 20mW and again no problem. Naturally I informed him of my power, and he seemed to enjoyed hearing the information. "FB QRP".
The very next day at 13:08Z I heard him again CQ'ing. I set my power at 12mW, re-checked it again and called him. We exchanged reports and I told him my power was 12mW! Naturally he remembered me from the day before and enjoyed hearing about the new low power.
From KJ5TF to CO8LY is 1531 miles, for 127,583 miles per watt.
The old 12M MPW record was set back on July 31st 1990, by JL1FXW who was running 2 watts SSB, in a QSO with A35QC.
Milliwatt QRP, or QRPp is getting more popular all the time, so I'm sure my record will not stand for nearly 10 years like the one I just knocked off.
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