WS6L antenna farm for high frequency operations...

Like most Amateur Radio enthusiasts, I'm always tweaking my antenna farm and I thought I'd post the latest update on the changes that I've made on my antenna farm, as of June 30, 2010: The loop antenna is gone, and so is the fan dipole, and they've been replaced with a GAP Challenger vertical antenna, and a 160 meter to 10 meter dipole antenna, mounted on the roof of the house. And now, the rest of the story...

Photo: On the beach at Florence, Oregon, with the GAP Challenger antenna securely fastened to the right side of my truck. It's noon, and I'm getting ready to check into the Jefferson Noon Net, on 7204 KHz. HF operations are possible, thanks to my Yaesu FT-817ND and the twin Hustler vertical antennas. I'll be using the left vertical antenna for 40 meter operations.

Years ago I owned a GAP Challenger and liked it, as it didn't require the use of an antenna tuner, and you could operated on around 200 KHz of 75 meters, all of 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters without tuning. It also makes a pretty good receiving antenna for the entire HF range, the Standard Broadcast Band (I like to DX AM radio stations) and most of all, the low frequency bands where all of the Non-Directional Aircraft Beacons hang out. The Challenger provided acceptable performance as a transmitting antenna, and provided me with many domestic and DX contacts. The GAP was happily planted in the "back 40" of the yard - we have a quarter acre suburban lot - and happily grew amongst the corn, peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables in the garden. But in March 2007, my youngest daughter announced that she was getting married in June, and she wanted to get married in our back yard. So my XYL gave me the marching orders: Goodbye GAP and garden and hello lawn. In the process of dismantling the GAP, and due to some carelessness on the part of some of my hired help, the GAP was irreparably damaged, and ended it's days at a local metal recycle establishment, where I only recouped pennies on the dollar.

Fast forward to Saturday, March 13, 2010 which found me in my shack, idly listening to the Saturday Swap Net, which airs from noon until 4:00 PM on 7240 KHz, and I heard a fellow Ham Radio Operator make an announcement that he had a GAP Challenger for sale, for a very reasonable price of $100.00, which is about a quarter of the new price. So I got on the air and contacted him and arranged for me to pick it up in two weeks. The only catch was that the antenna was in Florence, Oregon, which is a nine hour drive from my place, but I was in the mood for a road trip anyway, plus I wanted to check out a few restaurants in Eugene and post a review or two on our sister web site, www.erench.com.

Thanks to my GPS, I managed to find the ham's QTH, and after an hour or so of teamwork, we had the antenna folded in two, and securely lashed to the right side of my truck. Then it was back to Eugene for beer, barbecue, hot dogs, and lots of exploring before the rain set in again.

Photo: My GAP Challenger stands tall, planted in the back yard. It's hidden on three sides, hidden by the birch tree, the house, and the neighbor's redwood trees. Note the camouflage paint, which helps it blend in. The post to the right of the photo holds the outdoor sensor suite for my Davis VantagePro weather station.

At home, I propped the antenna up on the bar on the outside gazebo to elevate it to a comfortable working height, and disassembled it, cleaned it up with acetone, and put it back together, using new stainless steel hardware. I purchased conductive grease from the local auto parts store - the kind used on battery connections - to insure good conductivity, but also to aid in getting the pieces to fit. The cleanup was quite a chore, as the antenna had been in use on the Oregon coast for several years and definitely had seen some heavy duty weather.

Antennas are quasi-legal where we live, and its one of those things if nobody complains then it's ok, and it probably would be ok even if somebody complained, but I don't want the hassle, and I try to be a good neighbor. Also, my XYL doesn't particularly thing a 31-foot tall vertical antenna is attractive, so with those two issues in mind, I spray painted the antenna Desert Storm Camoflauge to hide the shiny aluminum. I strategically planted it in the back yard, behind a tree, so the antenna is difficult to spot from the street, and can only easily be seen by one neighbor, who doesn't care, as he's a nice guy and he's drunk most of the time anyway. My neighbor Fran, who had objected to antennas in the past, as reconciled with antennas, so now he's no longer an issue. I guyed the antenna on three sides, and it's fed with about 120 feet of Belden 9913 coaxial cable. The camo paint job really does the trick, and helps the antenna to blend in with the foliage.

Photo: The 160 - 10 meter dipole antenna is mounted at the peak of the roof, supported by a 4-foot piece of ABS pipe. One leg terminates at the post to the right of the photo and the other leg terminates on the roof. Each leg of the antenna is 66 feet long to optimize operation on 75 meters, since 75 meters is my favorite band.

I'm fairly happy with the Challenger, as I'm able to operate on about 200 KHz on 75 meters, and all of 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters with an SWR of less than 2 to 1. I rarely transmit using the GAP, as I like to use it as a spotting antenna to see which band is open, then I tune up the dipole antenna and work the station using the dipole. As I mentioned before, I really like the GAP as a receiving antenna for AM broadcast stations and aircraft beacons. Noise isn't a problem, as all of our utilities are underground, so I rarely experience a noise level above S-3 or so. For $100.00, a little bit of work and a fun weekend in Oregon, the Challenger can't be beat!

In May, 2010, I started to notice activity on 6 meters, and to my dismay, I didn't have a 6 meter antenna, but that all changed when I erected a dipole, just outside of the shack, and attached the high end of it to the upper rain gutter, and the lower end to the lower rain gutter. The antenna is polarized "sorta vertical" at about a 30 degree angle, which really isn't at all critical for long distance transmission. The dipole has a 1:2:1 SWR between 50 to 51 MHz, and slightly higher in the upper portion of the band. I can work all of the local repeaters using my FT817ND, running a mighty 5 watts, but sadly, despite an abundance of 6 meter repeaters, there isn't a whole lot of action in our area.

In erecting the 6 meter dipole antenna, I discovered a way to get on top of the roof of our house, which I'd been hesitant to do, as it's high, the roof is tile, and there didn't appear to be an easy way. But suddenly the light bulb came on, and I saw a way for easy access to the top of the roof, and a way to erect a much higher dipole antenna.

My 160 through 10 meter antenna center support is mounted on a length of ABS pipe, attached to the fascia board at the peak of the roof, and pegs the height of the antenna at 36 feet. Future plans include raising it up another 4 feet, but I want to leave the antenna as it is for a few months in order to gauge the reactions of the neighbors, if any. Each leg of the antenna is 66 feet long, which makes the antenna a half-wave antenna for 75 meters, and its made of 16 gauge stranded copper wire. One quarter wave leg basically follows the peak of the roof, then makes a bend and follows the roof down and is terminated at the lower rain gutter. The other leg heads out to the back yard and terminates at a post. The antenna is fed by about 60 feet of 450 ohm twin lead to a 4:1 balun outside the shack, and it enters the house on a 30 foot length of RG-8X, mini coax, where it terminates at my MFJ 949-D antenna tuner. I'm able to tune this antenna up on all bands, 160 through 10 meters, with less than 2:1 SWR, but curiously, I can't get better than 3.5:1 on 15 meters! As you can imagine, on 160 meters, I have to re-tune every 25 KHz, and on 80/75 meters, the retuning distance is about 50 KHz. The rest of the bands are easy, as all I have to do is tune to the center of the band, I'm good to go. With the help of my MFJ 259B antenna analyzer, I've plotted out the settings for the antenna tuner, and pasted them at eye level, so tuning is a quick and easy process. All I do to tune up the antenna is move the knob to the proper band, adjust the capacitance and inductance according to what the chart says, and them I'm ready to go. Most of the time I'll turn down the power on the rig to 5 watts or less, and key up on CW for a couple of seconds for fine adjustments.

Photo: Here's the ABS pipe, mounted at the highest point on the house, using a simple galvanized pipe floor flange, bolted to the fascia board. Since the ABS is plastic, it doesn't matter if the wires touch it. Note the ladder line drooping down from the antenna. The Diamond 2 meter/440 antenna also utilizes a galvanized floor flange. Note that the ABS pipe is painted to match the fascia board.

OK, the rig isn't up a hundred feet, nor is it in the prefect dipole configuration but, does it work? You bet it does, and it works well. I can work practically every station I can hear, running only 5 watts from my Yaesu FT-817ND. I regularly check into the Jefferson Noon Net, the California Traffic Net and the West Coast Public Service System, and never bother to announce that I'm only running 5 watts. No, this isn't a pileup-buster combination, but I'm not much of a DX'er, and I don't have the time to waste slugging it out in a pileup. Thanks to my quiet location, I usually have a noise level of S-2 or less.

My dipole antenna is stealthy, as it runs at the peak of the roof, the supports are painted to match the roof, and much of it is either in the back yard, or hidden by trees. If all goes well, I plan to raise it up another 5 feet, so it would be up about 40 feet at the peak, and somewhat lower at the ends. But I plan to wait a few months, to see if there is any adverse reaction from the neighbors, as I don't want any hassles, and I want to be a good neighbor.

Photo: Can you spot the antennas from the street? OK, the truck is a dead giveaway that a ham radio operator lives here. The "Here" at the left is where one leg of the dipole antenna terminates, and the "Here" at the center of the photo shows where the antenna is mounted above the roof line. The "Here" at the right shows just the tip of the VHF/UHF vertical antenna.

Since I can't tune this thing up on 15 meters, in the near future I'll be erecting a 15 meter dipole, as 15 meters is one of my favorite bands. But that might be a couple of months away, as I'm currently working 88 to 96 hour weeks at my "real" job, so there isn't much time for hamming or antenna work.

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