Antennas

This was not my first antenna system, but is the first I can find any pictures of. This picture was taken in November 1977 which consisted of a 4 element tri-band quad at 80 feet and a 2 element tri-band quad at 30 feet. This was taken on Viking Drive east of the city of Jackson, MI.

After moving from Viking Drive to Allman Road near Concord, the 80 foot Heights tower was increased to 96 feet and the 4 element tri-band quad was reconstructed. Above it were 6 and 2 meter vertical stuff. After 10 years on Viking Drive we spent the next 11 years at this QTH with 18.6 acres. I played with long wire antennas and several wire strung beams for the lower frequencies. This picture was taken in the winter of 1978-79.

These two pictures are of the same Quad, this is one of the biggest I ever built. 4 elements on 20, 6 on 15 and 7 on 10 meters. It was built in the early fall of 1979 and survived until late January 1980. The picture on the right is a bit strange, the antenna was covered with frost and made the wire elements look big and thick.

After the big quad came down and I was a bit tired of all the hard work with short time return, I decided to put up a Telerex TB-6EM at the top of the tower and add a Hygain 204-BA at 70 feet. Note the 2 Element quad on a 30 foot tower behind what was now a contest building.

I had heard Telerex made the best beams, sorry I wasn't impressed, never felt I was getting anything close to the gain that it was supposed to have. It was built solid but I found down falls in the trap construction. During the time I owned it I lost two different traps to lighting. This antenna system was used from summer of 1980 through the summer of 1982. I sold it to a friend and he also had to replace one of the traps.

By the way, if your into 20 meters only or like mono-band beams, the 204-BA is a very impressive antenna with long durability. A slight change in the element spacing will give it great gain and front to back.

In 1989 we moved to my present day QTH out side of Jackson to the Northeast on Dalton Road.

Another 4 element quad was constructed and a vertical for 40 meters on the roof, the tripod was already up there.

Satellite TV dish was here and I added some two meter stuff for packet radio. I think it was the spring of 1990 that I started running a DX-Packet Cluster Node.

The tower was extended to 112 feet by adding two more sections at the bottom of then available 30 inch sections. Tower was guyed in four directions and I used the top sets for crossed 80 meter inverted Vees.

May of 1992 the 185 foot Rohn 25G was erected behind the house, this was done with an enormous amount of help from Jeff N8CC. Note the 112 footer is in front yard, XYL would not let me put it in the middle of the pool) HI.

Another 2 element quad was added to the front tower towards Europe and a Cushcraft A-4 was placed on top of the 185 footer. The 2 element quad wasted the A-4 and it soon was taken down.

2 meters, 220 and 440 antennas were added to the big tower for several years as backbone setup for DX-Packet Cluster which was across the state of Michigan now. By 2007 the backbone all went away with Internet connections and even the 2 meter USER frequency was dropped. My ISP uses the big tower now to feed wideband internet to this side of Jackson. My internet is totally free of charge.

The CARS radio club used the top for their 146.28-88 repeater for several years.

In 1995 the last quad came down and a Hygain TH11DX was placed on top of the 112 foot tower giving me access to the WARC bands.

Being in the bottom of the sun spot cycle made things difficult to decide what was going to be best for an aging OM on ham radio, didn't want to stay up all night contesting on 40 or 80 so some concentration went towards 15 meters. In this picture you can see a 6 element 15 meter beam at 70 feet facing Europe. Another 6 element is pointed south at 40 feet which can not be seen. To the bottom right you can see a 42 foot tower with a rotating Explorer 14.

The big tower is getting work done to the 75 meter slopers coming off at 175 feet. There is also a 160 meter Inverted Vee just above that.

While updating this page here in April of 2010 some new pictures really need to be taken, but the front tower still has 11 element 2 meter beam, 5 element 6 meter beam, Th11DX and two 6 element 15 meter beams on it.

Back tower has a four bay 2 meter vertical, ISP equipment, four 80 meter slopers, 160 meter inverted Vee.

The short tower was extended to 52 feet and only a 6 element six meter beam was placed on top.