Currently viewing the tag: "160M"

This summer I was given permission by the road authorities to pass the coax cable going to the King through a drain under the road.

The drain pipe turned out to be damaged and when I reported this to the road authorities prompt action was taken.

A new drain pipe was installed two days later enabling me to route the coax under the road.

Traffic turned out to be unusually great that day and 30 vehicles were stuck for a while.

Photos by Finnbjörn of Litlaeyri.

Today the winds finally settled and in between freezing rainshowers I decided to hoist up the  60 pound insulators and antenna wires for the King´s antenna.

The antenna wires are #8 CopperWeld – copper covered steel wires with a breaking strength of 2500lbs / 1100kg.

My good neighbor, Finnbjörn from Litlaeyri, Airport Manager, came to assist me on the ground and he took these photos on my camera.

I began by pulling up the right hand side insulator and antenna wires while still on the ground.   I then attached a climbing rope to my harness and the other end to the left hand insulator and antenna wires already assembled on the platform.

Attaching the right hand side insulator went well, but the climbing rope attached to the other insulator managed to wind itself around the feedpoint box at the bottom of the pole.

Finnbjörn came to the rescue and untangled the rope, saving me a trip to the platform and back up again.

It  was extremely difficult to attach the second insulator until I discovered that one of the antenna wires had snagged on the platform.  Finnbjörn also saved me a trip back down by untangling the wire.

This was the most difficult part of constructing this antenna and I am glad it is behind me.  I must be getting old :-)

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I had previously ordered a line isolator or a 1:1 balun from ArraySolutions in the belief that it was the best available.
I learned that Balun Designs LLC were making a similar item with even greater isolation.

An inquiry to ArraySolutions by email asking them to provide me with test data on the isolation impedance of the choke resulted in no reply.

I am disappointed by this, I expected more from ArraySolutions.

The same question posed to Balun Designs resulted in an answer within minutes – On 160 meters the choking impedance is 1536 ohms at 1.8 MHz.

I purchased the Max choking model along with a 1:2 UNUN (25 to 50 ohms) both of which are obviously of high quality.

I have since learned that the impedance of the King´s antenna will be close to 15 ohms, so I should have ordered the 1:4 UNUN but not to worry, I will be building other antennas later and will find a use for it.

Balun Designs

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Building the guy wires for the King and the Rooks is difficult and time consuming.   I have now spent a few days on this task.

Most of the guy wires are made of 5/16″ galvanized EHS steel cable.

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