Antennas

A ham without antenna is like a cow-boy without his hat ! A performing antenna system is mandatory if you want to achieve your DXCC and exceed some 220 countries, a low value accessible to any SWL equipped with a longwire.

The reminding entities are located for one part in Africa but the larger one is constitued of small islands located in the Pacific Ocean, at 10-15000 km from Europe.

To be able to worked these remote entities I decided to install verticals and longwire at the end of my garden

I am currently using 4 kinds of antennas :

- 2 verticals, a Cushcraft R7 (7 bands) and a home made one that are erected in my backyard, 40m away from the home to avoid any interference.

- A 80 m longwire tilted at 45° across the garden, one end behind attached on top of the vertical.

- A short whip for the packet radio placed on top of my roof.

Here are some pictures of the installation :

At left and at center a close-up on my Cushcraft R7 vertical that gives me such good results. We also see a segment of the longwire. At right a general view. The vertical at left is home made.

The Cushcraft R7 gives excellent results in DXing : any station that I hear I can contact him, from the nearest ham to the farest DXer on Ducie island. This antenna displays also a low level of noise due to its design and a rather quiet working environment. I mainly use the longwire for the low bands of 80 and 160 m where it performs better than the vertical, as expected.

To read on LUXORION website:

Antenna basics - About antennas and long wires - From Long wire to yagi

Recently I also installed a small dish on my roof to capture TV programs broadcasted by satellite.

If you are interested in these technical matters, feel free to contact me by email to arrange a sked on the air.

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