I've done it! I've wanted to upgrade the tower and build another big quad array for at least a couple of years. Well, the tower has been rebuild and I am starting on the quad array. So if anyone wonders why I haven't been on much but 40/15 mtrs (40 meter ground plane works there), that's why.

The picture below shows the latest happenings with the quad array. Technically it is 5 band 4 element 20/17/15 and 7 element 10/12 with a 2 element 40 yagi folded around it. The boom is about 35' long but the spreaders end at 32' which came out much better on Necwires 2. Spacing is from back to front 10',10',12' for 20/17/15 and 5'10",4'2",5',5',5',7' for 10/12 meters.

Oh Oh, caught some grape vine in the guy wire! 50' of Rohn 45 with 49' of Rohn 25 inside .

Above is Shaddow with the Icom IC-775 and Hallicrafters SX-28. Below is the 5 band 20-10 meter, 30' boom quad array. 14-15 square foot that I changed out for the Steppir 3 element 20-6 meter below. I still think about putting up another quad. Building antennas gets in the blood like contesting. Every year I go through withdraws thinking about building/rebuilding antennas. The recent antenna work/changes are an example of that.

Would you believe, I've been getting the parts together to put up another big quad and spending hours on NECWIRES2 doing design work. Like I say, antenna's get in the blood. It looks like this quad will be on a 32-34' boom, be 5 or maybe 6 bands if I add 6 meters, and be on a Rohn 45 tower that might end up having rohn 25 in a crank-up arrangement. 6/2012

If anyone wants the dementions I developed on NECWIRES 2.0 for the big quad array I can send a file over email with them. I worked several months on my old computer developing the quad dementions for each band.

I've had a picture up in my shack for years of a 1965 red El Camino that I've always wanted but never thought I would be able to afford. Well you might say a miracle happened and I got my 'Dream Car', a red 1965 El Camino with 350 cu. in, automatic, black interior bench seat, and loud pipes. It really came like a bolt out of the blue and completely unexpected, but I did have that picture up in my shack for years. Maybe I should put a picture of a big multi-element quad on a 100' tower up in my shack, ya' think?

Below is a picture looking up the tower to the 3 element Steppir at 58' (18 meters). You can see the tower is setup to tilt over to the left (south) with the 4 inch gin pole for leverage.That allows me to work on the antenna(s) from a ladder. I have had two Rohn 25 towers with this arrangement, one at 40' and this one at 50' of tower.

51J-4 Collins RCVR above the R-390.

Your's truely, KI7M, had a love/hate relationship with quad antennas. If you have ever tried to get the SWR down on a hard to tune quad like a gotham or maco you'll know why. What's a Maco Quad? In the 1960's W9GIW, H.P.McCormick put out 'The Maco Quad'. It was a spider quad with 20/15/10 meters on it that had a 'frame' built like a pole lamp. Only weighed about 23 pounds. It performed exceptionally well as W2NQ/7 and myself can swear to, but it was not an easy antenna to tune up. I have the parts for one Maco Quad that if I ever lose the steppir I might put up. Oh oh, I'd need to tune it again, wouldn't I!

Lineup on antennas as of 2/2012

1. 3 element 20-6 meter Steppir at 58' (18 meters) with a 16' boom.

2. Hygain hytower ground mounted for 40/80 meters. 45-50 radials 34/66' long just under the surface (hope they haven't all rusted away.)

3. 40 meter slopers off the tower at 55' (4 of them) for NE,SE,S and NW. Some SWR issues with them.

4. 40 meter DXEngineering DXE-40VE-1 with the base at 13' high and four 33' radials above the ground. Required 35' 7 1/2" and still is a little short but is very broadbanded.

5. 135' of wire in an inverted L' arrangement for 160 meters. Goes up at about a 70 degree angle to 65' high, then bends over. Fed against the hytower radial system of 34'/66' wires. Uses a 3" diameter coil of 1/4" copper tubing (air core) with a wire jumper to move the dip from 1800-1910 Khz or so. Have about 15 turns of coil which is actually more than I need since it will dip down into the AM BC band.

6. 125' of wire over the 90-100' fir tree for 160 meter inverted 'U' vertical, L', whatever. Fed against the hytower radial system like the inverted L'. Requires the MN-2700 Drake tuner to drop the SWR down from 2:1 to near 1:1. I'm not a big fan of tuners especially running power in a contest so depending on how this works out the new antenna may be short lived. But looking at the height of that big fir tree I'm hoping it will work for the low angle DX work. Why don't more DXpeditionsoperate 160 meter SSB?!

7. GP6 for 2 mtrs/440 on top of the mast reaching 63'.

Changed out the driven element EHU because of intermittent connection problems. Suspect the SO-239 'prongs' becoming loose. Also fixed a high SWR on 10 meters apparently caused by my not soldering the sheild onto the SO-259 connectors on the LMR-400 50 ohm coax. Added four 40 meter slopers and 2mtr/440mhz GP6 vertical again like in the big quad picture.

People are flexable, computers are ridged and inflexable. 30 hours of CQWW160MSSB contest and it takes about 6-8 more hours to get the log file uploaded to the server! ARRRGGGGHHHH!

Equipment: Yaesu FT-1000MP with SP-8, FT-1000D with SP-5; Icom IC-775, IC-736 (HF 160-10 and 6 mtrs), R-7000 VHF/UHF/SHF receiver; Command Technology HF-2500 160-10 mtr amp; Dentron DTL-2000L 160-10 mtr amp (my basket case amp); Henry Radio 2K-Classic 80-10 mtr amp; Drake MN-2700 antenna tuner. Various boatanchor receivers like Hallicrafters SX-28, National HRO-60, Collins 51J-3 and 51J-4, R-390 and R-390A. Johnson Ranger AM/CW transmitter.

From now on USE LoTW (Logbook ofThe World) if you want a QSL. I upload to LoTW about every month. Anyone who just has to have that Oregon QSL card had better include an SASE or SAE and a green stamp.

I say the above about QSL cards and I just sent about 420 JA cards off in the mail trying to catch up! Also sent to several other bureas. So many countries, so many bureaus to send to. LoTW is so much easier.

United States Army Security Agency 4/69 to 4/72. Stationed at Ft.Ord (basic), Ft.Devens, MA; 7th RRFS Udorn Thailand; Vint Hill Farms, VA. 05D20/30. Now days no one even knows about the old ASA it seems. Getting old, huh!

19 years at Tektronix and 7 years at Xerox, first as an Electronic Technician, then in telecommunications. Last big project was programing and deploying 130+ Cisco 4606/4609 switches as well as some 6513's. I was actually pretty good with up grade projects like this even if I do say so myself! Really!

Umpqua Valley Amateur Radio Club founding member along with WB7OTR,AE7Q,W7LNE,WB7OTM,KA7DCL,KA7ADI and others.

Elmer: AE7Q, Dave Lee (SK) 'best technician I ever knew'. I miss him ever day for his technical advice and his humor.

CQ Zone 03 and ITU Zone 06

(503)393-0545

51J-3 Collins RCVR with my dream 64'GTO and WWII jeep 1:18 scale models. I consider the 51J-3 a better receiver than the 51J-4 due to apparent AVC/AGC issues. Backing off the RF gain helps

Above is my messy shack (a messy shack is a happy shack). FT-1000mp, FT-1000D, etc. You might also note the 1965 El Camino picture on the monitor that's been up for several years. Below is the tilt over base of my Rohn 25 tower.

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My cat Shadow says hello (and feed me).

More recent picture of the Steppir and 40 meter slopers and hytower (why does it look like it's leaning?). While the slopers receive better sometimes than the verticals, their SWR issues are a pain. The best SWR on them is the NE sloper at 1.5:1 and the others are resonant below the bottom of the band with about 1.8-2:1 SWR or more as you go up in frequency. Even so, they work as receive antennas on 40/80 and 160 meters. I really don't like using a tuner when running power during a contest in case something goes wrong and I don't spot it right away.

That's the old man with Patrick 'fat cat' who weighs about 25 pounds and has claws (oh, did I do something wrong?).

Working on new mast and sliding the Steppir up about 9 feet. It amazing how heavy that little steppir gets. Below is my dream car come true.1965 El Camino.