W1TR Antennas and QTH

Updated 16-Mar-2020 11:39

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HF / MF Antennas

1) 160 meter dipole at 70 feet, ladder line feed, a 4:1 balun near the shack outside, coax into the station.
2) 160 meter ground plane with a 65 foot vertical element and (2) 50 foot horizontal top hat elements with 4 elevated radials.
3) 80 meter vertical loop at 70 feet, ladder line feed, a 4:1 balun near the shack outside, coax into the station.

4) 80 meter ground plane with 4 elevated radials.

5) 60 meter half-wave sloper at 70 feet (to west), also works on 20 meters and 15 meters.
6) 40 meter horizontal loop at 70 feet, Q-Section match for 40,20,15,10 meters.

7) 30 meter vertical dipole at 70 feet.

8) 20 thru 10 meter fan dipole at 50 feet.

9) HF Tower and Yagi(s)

VHF / UHF Antennas

1) VHF FM Vertical Antennas

2) 6 and 2 Meter Stacked Halos

3) VHF Tower and Yagi Stack

Government Emergency Service Antennas

1) 2.6 MHz “M” Dipole (E/W)

2) 3.3 MHz half-wave sloper at 70 feet (to south), works also on 30 meters (3^rd harmonic).

3) 4.6 MHz half-wave sloper at 70 feet (to south), works also on 20 meters (3^rd harmonic).

4) 7.6 MHz vertical dipole at 70 feet for, works also on 40 meters and 15 meters (3^rd harmonic).

Antenna Switches Click to see how it all connects together !

SWR Charts for ALL Antennas (Excel File)

Sky Hook Hunting:

Arsenal of weapons used to hunt antenna Sky Hooks -

1) 100# compound hunting bow

2) Cheap used target arrow with large gauge solder wrapped around tip for weight, wrapped in electrical tape, hole drilled in tail for fishing line

3) Reel with 250 ft of 20# fishing line, mounted on a small ground rod using small hose clamps to stick in the earth near hunting grounds

Method -

1) Shoot the arrow over the appropriate tree limb, try again if not satisfied with the shot

2) Pull small string / twine over the limb with the fishing line

3) Pull rope using the string / twine

4) Pull up the antenna up with the rope.

QTH:

The VHF / UHF Halos and Ringo Rangers were put up hurriedly just before the June 2005 VHF QSO party and they have been moved farther from the VHF beam stack. During the summer of 2008 a 52 ft tilt-over crank-up tower was installed with a VHF/UHF stack of antennas just in time for the 2008 September VHF QSO party. Later that fall, 70 ft tilt-over crank-up tower was installed with the C4SXL HF beam. I just missed the ARRL SS but made it in time for the ARRL 10 Meter Contest. In 2018, the VHF/UHF tower was upgraded to have a better rotor, longer 6m beam, and 222 and 903 MHz beams.

2008

2018

HILL:

The QTH is located on this hill (no name, maybe Hnath Hill?) near the village of Westford, CT (part of the town of Ashford), at 965 feet elevation (yes, there are some higher hills to the NW, N, NE at 1300 ft) Stickney Hill, Bald Hill, Sky Hill, Leadmine Hill, Snow Hill, and more up through the Sturbridge, MA area. They have a tendency to force thunderstorms to the North or South of my QTH J J J But… I have a clear shot to the horizon to the E, S, W from about 45 degrees thru 315 degrees azimuth ! I don’t seem to have trouble working VT, NH, or VE2, VE3 from here, and it blocks my neighbor K1IM who works the VHF/UHF contests !! As you can see, fewer number of tower sections are needed to have a good signal on VHF/UHF from here!

Delorme Topo 3-D Map

Google Earth Satellite Photo