Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Dream Fulfilled - Roy's Antenna Farm

     Did you ever want some something really outstanding?
Something that only a few ham radio folks have! Like an antenna that out performs all others except stations like the voice of America. Its easy and you don't have to be rich. All it takes is a big piece of flat land, like forty acres and a few thousand dollars, some antenna knowledge, a lot of hard work and more than normal perseverance. 
                                                 
 
Home brew 197' tower almost up. 
  


197 feet up on a home brew tower

  

    After my first three years the in military I had been thinking about a big Antenna for a long time so in 1954, I built a multi Vee  beam antenna system on my dad's ranch 100 miles south of Tucson Arizona, just a few miles north of the Mexican  border. From the center tower I pulled seven wires spaced 30 degrees apart, 600 feet out on 40 feet high wooden towers all except for the center one. On the center tower I had a relay box that allowed me to select any of the six Vee beam antennas and with a built in home brew all band remotely controlled antenna tuner I brought the 52-ohm coax down to my  globe scout running 40 watts of AM.

 This antenna worked great on all bands 80 thru 10 meters. It was my first ham radio antenna and it made me feel like I had a KW. I used this antenna system for about one year till I was sent over seas again. During  my Air Force career I have held two DX calls, DL4DK and CN8IZ. 
   I retired from the Air Force in January 1968 and as my first job, I managed a cable T. V.  company for 10 years. The wife and I had made some good investments and I thought I could retire, so I bought a new truck and travel trailer and we went to Mexico for the winters and to Canada in the summers for 10 years. By that time we don’t feel so rich any more, and I was tired of being on vacation full time. The wife and I went back to work for the next 15 years, and after selling our business we bought 40 acres of flat land 40 miles south of Phoenix AZ. While in the military, I had the good fortune to work at some big and powerful transmitter sites and since then I always yearned to have an antenna farm some day. 
 
   73's Roy,  w7yrv . 


    




















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