[SJDXA] 160 antennas

[Bob Schenck N2OO]

Hi John,
FD is not going to work because all of our membership is involved in local
club FDs. As a matter of fact, I am the FD Chairman for Old Barney ARC.
Arnie W2OB and Bob W2ARP are involved with SCARA. I actually don't know of
any SJDXA member who is not involved with a local club for FD. BTW, you are
warmly invited to attend/participate our FD at OBARC. We do a good one. Our
intention is to do the best we can with those who participate. We are almost
always in the top 10. Last year we moved up from 3A to 4A and finished 4th
place. Not bad. And many SJDXA members are active participants.
As for field testing 160 antennas at the site, we must work with W2GD and
his CW team since they are the ones who have final word on the 160 antennas.
They (we help) bring down all 160 transmit antennas in the Spring for many
reasons. Then, sometime usually in October we all get together and put
everything back up for the next 160 contest season. There are pulleys on the
tower at about 200 feet that are left in place, however they are secured so
as not to chafe the tower/paint, and to keep away from a few other antennas
on the lower part of the tower used for WYRS.
I think that the best route to follow right now is to take the tower specs
and "model" some ideas.... think outside the box so to speak as well. We can
discuss these ideas and then offer them to the W2GD CW team for their
thoughts. Two of their team members are also SJDXA members and subscribe to
this discussion list (W2CG and W2GD). We have encouraged others on their
team to join us mainly for insurance reasons. SJDXA is ARRL affiliated and
has ARRL liability insurance.
In any case, the 160 CW contests (ARRL, Stew Perry, CQWW 160 CW) are all
theirs. SJDXA only does the CQWW 160 SSB contest. But we DO combine efforts.
Some of our CW members help the CW crew as ops, and some of the CW crew
helps SJDXA as ops in the SSB contest. And we share equipment, antennas,
storage space at the site.
So, keep thinking about ideas for the 160 antennas and we'll bounce them off
the CW team. I'm sure that they will throw ideas to us as well. Then in
October when the critter situation starts to calm down out there at the
site, we'll do some planning and re-erecting.
I suggest that if we want to do some experimenting, that we do it in
October/November. There are several ways to do that besides a contest. One
would be to find other hams willing to help us with "signal reports" from
specific directions. In advance perhaps? Also, there are internet accessible
remote receivers where we could do our OWN testing in a variety of
directions and distances without having to set up schedules and such.

See ya' in the Pileups!
73!
Bob Schenck, N2OO
President SJDXA
GO SJDXA!!! www.sjdxa.org

-----Original Message-----
From: sjdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:sjdxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of KE2OI
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 8:30 PM
To: SJDXA at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [SJDXA] 160 antennas

Bob,

I have been thinking long and hard about the 160 meter antenna situation and
I wanted to bounce something off the group.  Lets consider some form of a
compromise antenna and test it for field day.  Yes field day, lots of low
power signals to the west and southwest to test antennas for the high power
signals of next winter in the west.  

How about a full wave sloping dipole to the west with the bottom pulled to
ground rather than back to the tower, if this doesnt work well we can rig a
pulley and easily pull it back to the tower for reference.    Next, a sloper
to the southwest, fed from the bottom with 3 radials, one southwest, one
northeast and one southeast.  Lastly, shunt feed one guy wire to the west
with 3 radials.  I have never shunt fed but I bet there is enough expertise
in the club to do it.

Thats 3 antennas and we can use the vertical in the woods as a reference.
If interested please let me know.  I will start collecting wire for the
project.  Tractor supply has some really good stuff.

Not looking to win field day but I bet we could.....just looking for a
contest we can use as a reference to fine tune antennas.  Plus we learn of
what plays to deploy to the northeast and all other directions

Thoughts?  I like entering to win!

KE2OI John
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