I have been working with Eric, W3DQ who lives in Washington DC to try to
make the DC multiplier available in the CQ 160 contest next month.
It looks likely that he will be in town, so we will be setting up a
field-day type operation at his house, and he is looking forward to
getting DC on this year with a good signal.
The antenna he will be using is my new top-loaded short 160 vertical,
which is constructed out of one of the DK9SQ 33' telescopic fiberglass masts.
This design for a short portable (carry-on) 160 antenna was inspired by
W3LPL and N3NT, to allow N3NT to get on 160 with a short antenna that meets
his antenna restrictions. Craig has been very successful with his antenna,
so I became interested in a design that could be incorporated into
the DK9SQ fiberglass pole, useful at beachside dxpeditions that have no
other antenna supports.
The antenna is 30' vertical, with a top tee loading wire, and a base matching
network. It is band selectable to operate at 1830, 3500, 3675 and 3800, and
has two elevated radials for 160m and two elevated radials for 80m.
Eric will be testing this for me to see how it works before I drag it down
to the Caribbean and try it. So far my tests with an impedance bridge
have confirmed the modeling predictions so I do believe the antenna will
be successful.
If you work Eric next month, especially from a distance, I will be interested
in any signal reports. He will be running 1500w into an antenna that is
30' tall and has a radiation resistance of only a few ohms on 160m...
Good luck to everyone next month, and let's hope for better conditions than
last weekend (in the TBDC...)
73!
Brian N3OC / V26OC / FS/N3OC
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