SKCC 5123T----- FISTS 14979----- Flying Pigs 2331----- NAQCC 3610-----QRP ARCI 14176-----Polar Bear 257

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Field Day Antenna Amusement

Many of our antennas/tuners try to solve the multiband problem. When you throw in the WARC band into the mix you have many bands to cover and you can't count on them being harmonically related. Of course for ARRL Field Day, we don't operate on the WARC bands. I have in the past used the multiband doublet concept. In fact, last year I put up a 100 foot doublet with a SGC 237 at the center. This worked great. However, it occurs to me that a 40/20 parallel dipole with one feedline would cover those two bands plus I could work 15 meters as a 3/2 wave off the 40 meter dipole. I used this combo in the past for SOTA. I do have four Jackite poles that I could get the ends up 30 feet. The center might be 25 feet supported by camo poles. I could add a 10 meter parallel dipole but that is too cumbersome. Well, I just happen to have two Bravo 7Ks verticals and I could setup a 10 meter parasitic array for fun.  So 40/20/15 and 10 are covered. Hey maybe I just won't worry about 80 meters. We will see.

Parallel dipoles in my front yard.


A 100 foot doublet with a SGC 237 at the feed point.
Two Bravo 7K verticals as 10 meter parasitic array
This year I am operating with the Panama City ARC at the Bay County Florida EOC. There is an inside station and I set up an outside station. The inside station will use a NA4RR hex beam that covers 20 through 6 meters. This year Phil has a a trailer tower combination that can get the hex beam up about 30 feet.. I think this will be the A bomb for those bands. That antenna will be for the inside station.

The club hex Beam on Phil N4STC's trailer/tower.
Oh yes, I have a few days before the June 27/28 Field Day to change my mind. 

Greg N4KGL