I have been trying out the W3EDP antenna which I have built, it is also known as a Zeppelin Antenna as it was trailed behind the Zeppelin Airships which is fitting because there is a Zeppelin Stone on the plateau to commemorate the fact that Graff Zeppelin was forced to fly over the Erpeler Ley during trials of his steerable Airship due to an approaching storm front.
It is basically made of two wires one is 84 feet (25.6m) long (the radiator) the other 17 feet (5.2m) think of an OCF dipole, these then run vertically and parallel to each other for 17 feet in an open wire feeder configuration, (I use 17 feet of a comerical 450 Ohm open wire feeder) the longer wire (radiator) then needs to be vertical for another 6 feet (1.8m) I fix the open wire feeder and the first part of the radiator to a 25 foot roach pole and the rest of the radiator can be hung at an angle up in a tree or from another roach pole, add a 4:1 balun and an antenna matching unit ( I have the 4:1 balun connected directly to the AMU) and you are good to go as they say, you should be able to match this antenna to the 40 20 15 and 10 meter bands, I have only tried it on 40m to date with good results, people are amazed that I am running just 5 watts with this antenna, it can be put up in a couple of minutes, needs no trees and would also be a good antenna for SOTA operations, I have had this antenna up in some high winds and have not needed to guy the roach pole.
I am also interested in portable digital modes and have built the Softrock RXTX ensemble by KB9YIG Tony and also the Ultimate QRSS tranceiver kit by G0UPL Hans, the softrock I built for 30 20 and 17m bands and has an output of 1 watt, the Ultimate QRRS kit I built for 30m band it runs off 4 AA batteries (6v) and has an output of 180 milliwatts the QRRS kit can also be used on WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) as a stand alone transmitter with no PC required, for WSPR on the 20m band I use the softrock with an old laptop and a homebrew 20m band C-POLE antenna from HB9MTN's website, this antenna also fits on the 25 foot roach pole and again has not needed guying during high winds.
I have had my very first WSPR spot into Australia on 40m on Sun 12/Aug/12 at 07:15 UTC with VK5EE Tom, running 1 watt and the C-POLE antenna from the Erpeler Ley at a distance of 16124 Kms.
The Ultimate QRSS kit for the 30m band I use with a small homebrew magnetic loop (the Wonder loop) from G4ILO's website, I have increased the diameter of the loop from 80cm to 1.30m by bolting 4 x 1m long aluminium strips the kind you can purchase in DIY stores (use washers and self locking nuts so the loop can be folded into one 1 m length for transportation) , the loop is on an ordinary camera tripod and the QRSS kit can be straped to one the legs, just switch the QRSS kit on in WSPR mode then leave it alone all transmissions are automated, I have had a number of spots on WSPR through out Europe with just 180 milliwatts and the magnetic loop antenna, I also use this loop with 5 watts SSB on 40m and have QSO's into UK, Belgium, France, The Netherlands and once could be just heard in Norway.
Its fun to have two WSPR modes and SSB QSO's all at the same time and the three antenna look very impressive and are a good conversation starter.
Thank you for reading my Blog, I am more than happy to answer any questions, photos of the antenna to follow.
http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Antennas/W3EDP/ W3EDP antenna
http://fivedash.com/ Softrock RXTX Ensemble.
http://www.hanssummers.com/shop Ultimate QRSS kit
http://www.qsl.net/hb9mtn/hb9mtn-c-pole.html C-POLE antenna
http://www.g4ilo.com/wonder-loop.html Wonder loop antenna
Vy 73 de Colin DD5CF / G1ZOS
| 2012-08-12 07:14 | DD5CF | 14.097167 | -24 | -3 | JO30nq | 0.5 | VK5EE | QF02 | 16124 | 86 |
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