Bob (N7AU) petting his rebuild 4 element SteppIR antenna back on one of his towers.
Bob made a bracket, the piece on top of the boom that straps to the boom. The bar on the bracket on top is adjustable to find the center.
Using the ATV to pull the antenna up
The antenna going up the tower
The antenna almost ready to attach
Jay (WA0WWW) repainting his SteppIR antenna. Notice the nice raising fixture for his crankup tower.
Bob finished the tower/antenna installation today on his 6 meter antenna. It is an M2 5 element 6 meter Yagi, on which he modified the driven element into a folded dipole and then fed it with 450 ohm ladder line.
This tower/antenna is at one the peaks on his property and the base is anchored in a granite outcropping…all guy anchors are also in granite.
Picture 1: construction and mounting of the base plate…..extra heavy hinge is two telescoped pipes welded to the base and the tower base (standard Rohn backed with 1/4 inch steel plate.
Picture 2: Kubota delivering the top section from the shop 400 feet down
Picture 3: tower lowered
Picture 4 tower raised with the winch on the Kubota.
The tower is 30 feet but it is at the top of the property with steep drop-offs in most directions.
Looks like Murf’s (N7UVH) Hytower is putting out some RF
Field Day for 2020 was different than most years.
Jim (N7ESU), Bob (K7TM) and Murf (N7UVH) aka “Idaho Renegades” did Field Day from a Fire Station in Hayden Lake.
John (K7KM), Janet (WX7P), Mike (K7STO), Chuck (KI7DG) and Mel (N7GCO) used N3FJP Club logging to keep in touch.
Dale (AF7WH), a member of our user group from CDA, has an impressive Drake collection. Using his Drake radios he has achieved WAC, WAS and DXCC. He almost has WAZ. His new goals are 5BWAS all on Drake equipment of course.
Here is a photo of his Drake Tube Line (TR3, 4, & 6)
Here is a photo of his Drake Solid State Line:
Geoff Howard (W0CG/PJ2DX) was inducted into the CQ Contest Hall of Fame 2020 at Contest University. This is one of the highest awards any contester can receive. Those in the CQ Contest Hall of Fame are the giants of Amateur Radio.
Geoff, your fellow members of the SDXA add their congratulations. No one deserves this award more than you. Your accomplishments leading PJ2T are tremendous.
Geoff’s acceptance speech was outstanding. If you did not hear it, by all means, listen to it when it is uploaded to YouTube.
Congratulations Geoff! We all in the SDXA are honored to have you as a member and call you our friend.
Mike (K7STO) has added to his grounding/lightning protection for his tower. The enclosure box is 18x18x8 deep and includes two-line control devices and six coax devices. For the grounding/lightning protection, he used Morgan systems suppressors. Antennas routed through this enclosure include 3-element SteppIR, 80/40 dipole. 80m vertical, 160, inverted L and 2,/70cm vertical. Note the great labeling of the coax.
Did you know that the SDXA has a lending library?
Each month Jay (WA0WWW) brings these books in his truck and any member can check them out.
Up the Tower by Steve Morris, K7LXC ($35)
If you are thinking of putting up a tower, this is a great book.
Array of Light, 3rd edition: Straight talk about antennas and related subjects, by Tom Schllier N6BT ($35)
HF Vertical Performance and tests, by Steve and Ward Silver N0AX ($35)
Real tests on popular HF Vertical antennas
HF Triband Performance and test, by Steve and Ward ($35)
Real tests on popular HF Vertical antennas
RTTY Handbook, 73Magazine staff ($35) (donated by N7AU)
If you are interested in RTTY, check this book out.
The Care and Feeding of Trans. Lines by W1ZR ($35) (donated by AD7XG)
Vertical Antenna Classics by KU7G/ARRL ($15)(donated by AC7MV)
DXing 101x by AC6V ($25) (donated by AC7MV)
A great introduction to DXing.
NOTE: The Price after the book is what you owe the club if you don’t bring it back.
We are excited to announce that Gary Bytnar (AD7XG) has received appoint as an Official CQ Awards checker. This means you can get your CQ WAZ QSL cards checked locally.
Congratulations Gary! Thanks for serving the SDXA in this needed area.
The March/April 2020 issue of the National Contest Journal (NCJ) included a wonderful article on PJ2T and our own Geoff Howard (W0GC/PJ2DX)
by Robert Ramirez (CE3CT). Thanks to the generosity of the NCJ and Editor Scott Wright, we received permission to post the article on the SDXA website. You will enjoy reading about it and the “Ultimate Contesters Man Cave”. You can read the article here: NCJ March 2020
We encourage all our members to subscribe to the NCJ.
In the March QST magazine, our own Bob (W7SX) has the feature article “Building Your Own Open-Wire Line” on pages 30-33. It is also featured on the magazine cover.
In the article, Bob shares the step-by-step construction of his incredibly efficient feed line. His rugged open-wire line holds up in difficult weather and works great even under high SWR conditions. This is the feed line he is using on his new antenna farm.
Congratulations to David (WA7TNT) for achieving DXCC.
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We all have enjoyed and recognized the features of Club Log as a valuable resource.
For several years the SDXA Club Log Administrator has been Chuck Williams (KI7DG). Chuck has done a fantastic job of helping SDXA members become active on Club Log and provided monthly reports on our progress for club meetings. Chuck is also the author of a great article on the SDXA Website at this
ClubLog 101 LINK that I would encourage everyone to read.
Chuck (KI7DG) at his station
Chuck has felt now was time to pass the barton on the leadership of ClubLog. He will continue to serve as a second administrator, riding along as assistant to the new administrator.
Murf (N7UVH)
President Gary (AD7XG) has appointed Patrick Murphy “Murf” N7UVH as the new SDXA Club Log Administrator. Murf is a very active DXer and will do a great job leading the use of Club Log for the SDXA.
Jeff Banke (NZ2S) got his tower and antenna up. The tower is Rohn 25 with a Hexbeam antenna.
