Antenna Farm

Roger Cooke - G3LDI

History.

I was licenced in 1956 at the age of 17. My first QSO was on a borrowed homebrew two-valve transmitter and my receiver was an R1155. I had a piece of wire running from my father's shed down to the bottom of the garden, all of about 60 feet at about 20 ft high at maximum. I used this on top band for some time, talking to locals. Then I became more adventurous and doubled in the PA to transmit on 80 meters, CW only of course. I worked around the UK like this for a while.

Pat, G3IOR and myself took a memorable trip to wood merchants and bought a 25 ft pole. We walked this about 5 miles back to my parent's house on two bicycles, Pat at one end and myself at the other. Manouvering that in and out of traffic and across roads was an experience to remember! A couple of years later, my parents went on holiday and I again visited the wood merchants and this time I bought two 40 ft poles for £2 each. With help from locals we put these into concrete tabernacles, at each end of my parents garden and I erected a 66 ft end fed Zepp. I still remember the look on my parent's faces when they came home. I still have those two poles today!

I eventually tried various rotary dipoles on a 20ft dural pole, then a Mosley TA33jr. Beams were not too common in the UK 35 years ago, and this beam performed very well indeed compared to a piece of wire. I married in 1966 and moved into a bungalow at Wymondham with a large garden. The first tower was a Heathkit and I built a 10 ft top extension taking it to 42ft. On this, I tried various antennas including tri-band quads, beams and wires.

Then I sold that tower and moved up to a Strumech four-section versatower with a 20 ft pole out of the top. On this I had a homebrew 3el beam for 20 meters and stacked above it a Mosley Elan for 10/15 meters. I suffered the dreaded fate of tempting providence as a gale, and we get some big ones in Norfolk, blew the lot down. The top 20 ft dural mast landed in my neighbour's garden, and it was four feet in the ground! Luckily I was able to replace the tower and kept the top two damaged sections, which the local blacksmith was able to repair for me. These two sections now form the basis of my small test tower, with a head unit and a dural mast in the top, taking any antenna for testing up to about 50 ft. My son, a skilled welder, made the groundpost. He based the construction of the groundpost on the one with my present tower. I moved to Swardeston in 1983 and sold my tower I had at Wymondham. I now have a Westower 3EX, a 120ft tower, with a TH7DXX at the top.

I was divorced in 1982 and spent nearly a year looking for a place purely to indulge my main hobby. I found this place, a derelict Old Nursery with 8 acres of land, pure heaven!
I am still clearing the place but it is gradually taking shape! Rome wasn't built in a day and having been made redundant from work due to an accident, I took early retirement and should have plenty of time to indulge! It does not seem to work quite that way however.

Future Plans

For the LF bands I used a Delta loop at Wymondham and worked lots of DX on that, but so far I have not done much LF work here at Swardeston as I have been so involved with Packet and the Satgate. I have just used inverted V dipoles from the top of the tower. These work reasonably well but again I suffered in 2002 as they were blown down in a gale. Incidentally, the 120 ft tower is never cranked down and is guyed with nine guys. It was up in the 1987 hurricane and all the gales since then. I use steel wire guys, broken with large insulators to avoid unwanted resonance. I am hoping to replace these eventually with Kevlar or similar if I can find a source, suitably priced and also a suitable diameter.

I am going to remedy that this year. I am shunt feeding the tower and installing about 150 ground radials so I can use it on top band and 80 meters. I have also just obtained planning permission for three extra towers and I intend to erect a Rhombic, four wavelengths per leg on 20 meters. I have always wanted to try a Rhombic since listening to ZL2BE when I got my R1155 in 1955. Now I have the space I can try this exotic antenna and I am hoping that the results will by worth the hassle.

Newly Licenced?

If you are newly licenced and don't have too much space for antennas, don't despair. Having to try to work DX with a modest power, and a modest antenna hones the skills you need to become a good operator. The ubiquitous G5RV is a very common antenna and can produce some extremely satisfying results, even with low power. You won't compete with some of the big guns, but with patience you will still work the DX. Certainly using CW helps a lot when DX-ing, and it is surprising what you can do. If you are thinking about putting up a tower, a pole or anything over 20 ft to support an antenna there are routes to take in order to obtain the permission. Here's a list of to do's:

1 Join the RSGB. This gives you the credibility of belonging to a professional and scientific body. If you are involved in electronics or a similar profession, the yearly fee is tax-deductable too. The RSGB also has a wealth of experience and offers members help with planning problems.

2 Join RAYNET, the Radio Amateurs Emergency Network and help with some of the events. Make sure your station is available for any emergency. This will show that you are socially responsible.

3 Talk to your neighbours about your proposed tower, poles or plans. Try to get them on your side before you alienate them. Better to have friends than enemies!

Here is what the RSGB can do for you: This information has been lifted from the RSGB Web site and is not complete. Obviously you will have to become an RSGB member to benefit from this service.

RSGB - Society - Planning Advice
RSGB Planning Advisory Committee & Panel
Help for RSGB members to obtain planning permission for their aerials.
Introduction
Need for planning permission
Advice Booklet
Planning Panel
Planning Advice Committee
Conclusion

What needs permission?

Anything, which exceeds the height of the dwelling, requires permission unless it is within 2m of the boundary of your home, within 5m of another dwelling or fronts to a highway; in which case lower limits apply.

Advice Booklet
The Society publishes a booklet Planning Permission : Advice to Members.
The booklet runs to 30 pages and includes all the information an amateur needs to enable him/her to produce a good planning application and hopefully obtain planning permission Subjects tackled include :
Steps before you produce a planning application
Need for planning permission
Where to apply
Fees
Your neighbours
Your local Councillors
Mobile Masts
Enforcement

The booklet is available from Headquarters and is downloadable from the "Members Only" section of this website. As this is a service for Members only, it is not available for sale as are other Society publications.

The importance of obtaining the booklet and following the steps set out cannot be overestimated. Feedback obtained at rallies and exhibitions suggests that most amateurs who do this, and have a reasonable expectation of what they want to put up, get permission or otherwise get the aerials they want. The booklet is reviewed and updated annually - the Committee welcomes suggestions as to how it might be improved (see address at the end). The advice contained within the RSGB Planning Booklet is just one of the many benefits of membership.

Planning Panel
The purpose of the Panel is to provide Members with one to one advice and guidance on their particular case.

Primary Advice

You would be well advised to buy a book or three. There are numerous antenna books, and one of the best is the ARRL Antenna Handbook. This comes with a disk with some very useful design software. Another, specialising in LF band antennas is Low Band DX-ing by ON4UN. Some test gear would be useful too, some of which can be home made. I shall go into this a bit deeper in a later article.

I hope to be reviewing a few antennas from time to time and will be comparing them to my TH7 and also a reference dipole over a period of time. Remember, the Americans have a saying; "If your antenna didn't come down last winter, it wasn't big enough"

Roger, G3LDI @ GB7LDI

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