ARROW Communications Association

Nov. 7, 2007
The proof is in the pudding, and SSCW was the perfect place to find out just how the station would do with its three antennas - the HF9v with (now) 8 radials over 33' length, the dual band "fan" dipole on 15/40/80, and the low-swinging vertical dipole in the woods on 10/15/20.

The contest went better than I expected. I ran 5 watts from my Orion as always, and was able to switch between antennas using a combination of the front panel and an old rotary antenna switch.

I had little trouble being heard (once the high powered stations had been worked), and the proof is in the results: 402 QSOs, but in 79 of 80 sections - just ONE SHORT OF A CLEAN SWEEP!!!!!!! I was (and still am) so excited. Total score was over 62000, and I only wished I had heard a station in the Canadian Northwest Territories (but I've only heard any a couple of times in 25 years ..). I am sure that will give me excellent standing in Michigan, and possibly top 20 in the country. I am STOKED!!

Since the SSCW I have purchased 200' of black 1/2" dacron rope, and hope to (will) replace the current pieces of rope holding up the triband dipole so that the knots won't stop me from getting it up near the top of the tree. I can't imagine how great it will be when I have that antenna tuned like it should be for 20m, and then 1.5 wavelengths above the hilltop. It should really kick butt!!

The hilltop site I searched a year and a half for is really working well, too. All my antennas, including the low and compromised dual-band dipole, have worked *very* well.

I have noticed that sometimes the vertical seems to work better for what I expect to be high angle signals on 40 and 80m, while the dipole seems to work better for longer ranges, including sometimes off its ends. I would have expected the opposite of these conditions, but, then again, dipole patterns are more omni-directional as they are lower to the ground (and more NVIS in characteristics). That will hopefully change if I ever get it higher up in the air.

The other antenna I still want to add will be a 1-2 wavelength (80m) horizontal loop through the trees, as I know from experience that it will be easy to tune for any HF band, especially with an automatic antenna tuner, and will produce lower and lower radation angles as one goes up in number of wavelengths (frequency).

I still have my Orion on a grungy card table (usually only trotted out for Field Day), and the station is a huge mess of boxes of ham radio stuff not yet organized or stored. I will have to do some serious swapping to get rid of stuff I will probably never use again. I checked into the club's Monday Night Net last night and offered to the membership to help anyone, especially new hams, looking for things they needed or wanting to build an antenna -- I still have a ton of aluminum tubing including some gamma match assemblies, *lots* of different kinds of wire including some *very* stealthy 18 gauge magnet wire that disappears from view at 15' unless the sun catches it just right, and tons of other necessary stuff.

I am so pleased with the way my antennas are working on this high hill (the second highest hilltop in the city). Much work to do, but I am looking forward to SSphone in 2 weeks and (my other really BIG contest in the Fall) the CQ WW DX CW contest the weekend after Thanksgiving! I can't wait.

Good reception all. I will write more as I have more to write.
73 de kt8k - Tim