Our house was completed during the summer of 1995 and costs associated
with the construction were higher than expected (I am sure this is standard
with most home constructions..), so I had to wait a few years until
the money was available to erect the tower.
The tower was purchased in 1990 from a local CB operator that wanted to
put up a big tower, but he never did put the tower up before he sold it
to me. The tower was made by Pirod and it is self supporting and
uses solid iron rod for its structure (not tubular). The bottom 20
feet weighs over 600 pounds and the total tower is close to 1700 pounds.
Each section is easily bolted together and can be lifted as one solid structure
onto the base (see the pics).
The tower is then place onto the anchor bolts where it is leveled and secured.
After bolting it down I made the trip up to the 60' point to unhook the
lifting strap. I then made my way to the top to await the antenna
lifting.
As you might have noticed from my 1992 QTH, I had a KLM KT-34XA antenna
(for 20 - 10 mtrs), but nothing on 160 - 40 mtrs (except for dipoles).
I loved the performance of the KLM KT-34XA, but wanted a 40 meter beam.
I knew of others using the Cushcraft 2 ele. 40 mtrs with the XA, but some
had problems with interaction as the beam seperation was too close.
I really did not want to have a huge debug period, because the contest
season was getting near (as it turns out I really didn't know what I was
getting myself into over the next 3 years). The final decision was
based on input from the local hams and conversation with the manufacturers.
In the fall of 1997 I finally had a quad-band antenna at 100'!
The beam was a Force 12 C4-XL/D. When the antenna was installed,
it was like we moved closer to the coast. The signals were unbelievable
on 40 meters and the signals on 20 and 15 were better on the Force 12
C-4XL than that of the KLM KT-34XA. The only disadvantage was 10
meters. I feel the signals reports were down as compared to that
of the KLM (the KT-34XA has 6 elements on 10 meters).. I soon noticed
the need for more and better antennas in the contests........
The next year I purchased a C-3 antenna from Force 12 at the Dayton Hamvention.
Actually Tom, N6BT, had one there to sell, but he did not want to drag
home on Sunday so we came to an agreement. The antenna was stacked
with the C-4XL and we noticed an improvement while working the contests.
I can't say we were able to break the pile-ups significantly better (although
it was better than a single antenna), but the combo of antennas were great
while running the pileups. In essence we had gain in multiple directions..
Next was the addition of a 80 meter rotary dipole. The Force 12
EF-180B antenna was installed in the Fall of 1998 and proved to be a great
addition to our station. The antenna 2:1 SWR bandwidth is only around
60 KHz (without the switching relays), but having a dipole that can be
rotated was a big plus and having it at 107' was much better than the wire
dipole at 80' - 90'.
The lowband receiving antennas were improved with the addition of some
beverages. With the help of a few articles it was easy to make our
own transformers. The feedpoint of the beverages is around 400 feet
away from the tower. I live on a golf course that has lots of woods
and the owners allow me to install beverages during the winter season.
There is enough room for 3-4 600'+ beverages. The directions are
E, N, W, and a shorty to the south (I will probably try a reverse beverage
wire next to the North wire to obtain a long South antenna for the 2000/2001
season).
The multi-beam antenna picture shows a Force 12 EF-180B at 107', a C-4XL
at 102', a C-3 (installed on a TIC ring) and a side mount 2 meter vertical
for the KJ9D-5 packet node. As indicated in the prevoius pages,
I decided to upgrade to better antennas for the contest efforts and sell
my C-4XL/D to my neighbor, W9IU, Don. This last picture shows the C-4XL/D
antenna installed on Don's 90' tower. He also has a Force 12 EF-902
(2 meter antenna), an EF-180B, and a 4 element 2 meter side mount antenna.
After the winter of '98/'99 the big reconstruction started! |