The Commo Section at our Da Nang Headquarters used a LARGE (emphasize L A R
G E) LPA. Boom was about 64' and *appeared* to use Rohn 25 as the boom
material!! I *think* the elements were all interconnected in a letter "Z"
arrangement. It featured a "skirt" that extended freq coverage from 4 MHz
to 30 MHZ. Looking back, I remember the "skirt" as a 'discone' arrangement
extending from the top of tower (beneath the LPA) to the ground. I was only
bootlegging back to the States then; I wasn't officially a ham and didn't
pay that much attention. :-) [I can maybe find a picture if anyone is
interested.] If you go to this web site
http://home.earthlink.net/~specforces/index.html and choose the Company
C link on the left, you will see some of our antenna field.
The LPA was usually used by the RTTY section. The lowly CW operations
section used the KWM-2A, 30L-1,and dipoles. RTTY, on the other hand, used
the KWM-2A, the 30S-1, and the LPA. Every once in a while (while I was on
the graveyard shift) I would reconfigure the equipment -- 30S-1 and LPA for
me! I would call CQ de 3w8gb. The radio would go silent... even the static
stopped. Another CQ would result in half the world calling me. My ERP?
Oh, about 16Kw!! Musta sounded like the second coming of the Lord! ...from
3w8, a 'banned' country!! Did I work any of you guys??
Nice intro to ham radio, huh? :-)
Gary B
k3gb
'RVN BTO'
Jerry scribed....
> The military and DoD use some humongous LPA's. As I recall, ours (Navy
Comm
> Station) were good for 8-32 mhz. FAA also uses them. They are extremely
> large and use a pretty good sized tower section for a boom. I think
Hy-Gain,
> and maybe several others make them. Don't remember how long the booms
were,
> but had to be at least 60'. BIG bucks to buy one, I suppose big bucks also
> to build one. I never got a close look at the rotators, but I'd like to
see
> one. These things had to weigh over a thousand pounds. If you build one
I'd
> like some photos!
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