In 1980, we moved the club station (W4DFU) at the University of Florida to
the top floor of the Dental school (the roof was about 150' AGL). The shack
is midway between elevator penthouses (about 125' from each). We put up 40'
towers on each penthouse, one for VHF/UHF and one for the TH6DXX. We also
had fan dipoles for 75/80 and 40 (multiple wires resonant across the bands)
and a 4BTV with a bunch of radials. Our lowest antenna was about 160' and
our highest about 185'.
We didn't have any money to buy hardline, so we scrounged some 1/2" 75 Ohm
stuff from the cable company. We took a hacksaw and slotted the body of a
PL-259. We then screwed it onto the hardline (after prepping the center
conductor) and secured it with a compression clamp.
Even with the impedance mismatch, the system performed very well on 50, 144,
and 430. We had mast mounted pre-amps on 144 and 430. We had a pair of
circularly polarized yagis with remotely reversible polarity. Az-el rotors
were an expensive novelty back then. We made due with a Ham II for az and an
el-cheapo Radio Shack TV rotor for el. It was a two man operation to work
satellites (one to run the rotors and one to run the twin Icoms). We had a
blast though and made a bunch of contacts. The clacking of the RS rotor
while you were trying to copy a weak signal was pretty annoying though. (I
think the RS rotor is the one in the bottom picture at
http://www.w4dfu.ufl.edu/picture.html )
We heard rumors of a Henry 4K-2 in the Physics Department. They apparently
acquired "Hank" in the 1970's to communicate with a base camp in South
America. We found and adopted it; I gained an appreciation for what an
amplifier could truly be!
Sorry for the trip down memory lane, but the thought of aluminum hardline
makes me wax nostalgic...
Doug
K4DDR
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