The Journey to Area 57 Finding land in

The Journey to Area 57 Finding land in Texas To live and grow big antennas by KG 5 VK

It all starts at the kitchen table… • • My bride decides she wants to Move Hmm first thing comes to my mind Is well she has always taken care of my wants So I best listen and maybe something will be in it for me

The hunt begins to find at least 5 acres of land in Texas The requirements are simple • Not within any city limits • Zero tower restrictions other than FAA rules • Low Noise (No QRN) above S 3 • Low visibility to neighbors Must have reasonable Terrain Rolling hills preferred simply because it is prettier • • • Must be laid out in North South direction or Square Should be within a hour drive of Sadler Texas (which is the heart of the reason for the move)

Meet The Heart of the reason for moving to Texas… The goal was to be within One hour drive of the twins Area 57 is one hour and 20 minutes away Zo (The XYL) agreed this was O. K. The 7 year old Twins from Sadler, Texas

Tools we used when considering a Piece of land… • HFTA was used before any site was seriously considered One site Terrain Analysis clearly showed it was in a hole with surrounding terrain in all directions greater in height, Even though the site looked OK in person • All sites were surveyed using a K 3 and a mobile antenna • Even sitting under the power lines at the front gate Area 57 showed the lowest noise (Less than s 3 at that time – before summer thunderstorm season) Once we gained access to the property first QSO was from the mobile to Belize breaking a small pile up

Tools we used to find the land • We used a good Realtor • The Internet and Realtor dot com • The key was finding an agent that was patient enough for us • Our first agent was a bust, the second one a gem, He looked up all kinds of data for us and from day one put it in writing zero tower limitations in all offers we made… • Yes it was three offers before we found land being sold that the owner accepted our offer

Two months and a tad over $100 k poorer we found this…. Our Shack known as Camp One

Yes it did come with a house. . Yes the 57 Acres came with a House, however it was appraised (the House as zero value) Because it was A disaster inside and out We initially thought we might make it livable then saw the light of day or dark of reality Besides the foundation needing raised and already ate by termites There existed two large metal barns in like new condition And if we started out living in the portable buildings we already own that are in Louisiana we could keep cost way down, even with the cost of paying a mover to relocate those buildings…

So portable buildings is the immediate solution Longer term is add a concrete foundation to one of the nicest metal Barns and build a house within it (size 36 x 30) A 4 inch pad of concrete is planned

Yes the property is more than just a metal building or two and a wood shed (Camp One)

This is just one of Five Ponds on the property

This is the North Plot

This is the Rear plot Which is perfect for an 80 m Rhombic pointed NE / SW

Mean while everything has its priorities and mine certainly are antennas • Use HFTA to determine best locations within the 57 acres • Look at what others have done and had success with • N 5 AW Marv has a great antenna farm on a 128 acre ranch in South Texas, fortunately for me I’m in North Texas, still plenty of competition from Houston and of course Dallas with the likes of George NR 5 M (Houston) and Jay WX 0 B (Dallas) • So unless I can (I can’t) compete with their deep pockets • I will need to pick contests they rarely enter and or a different category NR 5 M likes DX contest and shy’s away from Sweeps stakes and is often MM and Jay has had fewer entry’s lately due to his growing business and dx peditions • So there is hope I can win a few categories in contests

Let’s not re-invent the wheel Fortunately hams still love sharing and an email to Marv N 5 AW, who is currently #3 in the USA for WRTC standings Gave me exactly what he is currently using and what he might have done differently and of course I also watched the video of Craig Thompson K 9 CT station and antenna farm design hosted at… http: //wwrof. org/webinar-archive/planning-your-conteststation-by-craig-thompson-k 9 ct/ If you have not seen Craig’s video you should! One of the key things I learned is plan it and re plan it before you set it in stone (concrete). This of course was learned from having built more than one antenna farm in my Ham Radio journey.

Marv NA 5 W mentions… His design of one tower to the South East of the North West tower is great for hanging wire arrays that will be broadside towards Europe, but the down side is the South East tower antennas are looking into the other tower when working JA. I think this is but one reason why he is more dominate in contests that favor working EU

Area 57 Antenna Farm Rev. 4. 1 (Oct 2015) • Two Towers - Rohn 45 G @ 110’ & 55 G at 140’ • Mono Banders on 40 m, 20 m, 15 m, 10 m and 17 m • KT 34 xa w M 2 upgrade (Tri-band) • One 80 m Rhombic • Two Bi-Directional BOG antennas (NE/SW & NW/SE) • 160 m Top Loaded Vertical (used during W 1 AW/5 at KG 5 VK in Louisiana) • Three Element Hi-Z vertical rcv array • YCC Nine element low band RCV array • 80 m Four Square

Suggestions from Friendly Hams From the go Big or stay in Louisiana comes this one… KA 5 M – I’m thinking your first permanent antenna system at Area 57 should be a 120 foot Rohn 55 tower with 5 -element 20 M monobanders at 40, 80, and 120 feet – all individually rotatable and all selectable in any combination. Then you can move on to your 210 foot tower with 40 M monobanders at 105 and 210 feet – both individually rotatable and both selectable in any combination. Of course you’ll also need at least one full-size 4 -square on 80 M. But to really set your station apart, a 160 M full-size 4 -square would be “nice”. Let’s see 4 (verticals) X 128 (radials per vertical) X 135 feet (length of each radial) = 69, 120 feet of #16 radial wire – hey that’s only a little over 13 miles. Might take a while to get all of those radials laid down. Marsh, KA 5 M

However Marsh does have some excellent albeit more “practical” ideas…. . • Circle 8 (200’ radius) low noise receive array for 160, 80, & 40 M • 160 M - 135’ Vertical with 64 – 135’ ground radials • 80 M – 4 -Square Vertical Array • 40 M – Yagis at 210’ and 105’ Tower 1 • 20 M – 5 L Yagis at 120’, 80’, and 40’ Tower 2 • 15 M – 5 L Yagis at 90’, 60’, and 30’ Tower 3 • 10 M – 5 L Yagis at 60’, 40’, and 20’ Tower 4 • Large Tribander (20, 15, 10 M) at 70’ Tower 5 • All Yagis independently rotatable – and/or - stacks on 40, 20, 15, and 10 M can be turned together using “Master – Slave” controllers. • This should at least get you “in the game”. KA 5 M

A Plan (Revision 4. 1) Dated 6 Oct 2015 110 foot tower (Rohn 45 G) North Tower • Tri-Band M 2 36 xa @ 110 feet • 15 m 6 el @ 60 feet • 10 m 5 el @ 50 feet 140 foot tower (Rohn 55 G) South Tower • 40 m 4 el (M 2 LLDD) @ 140 feet • 40 m 4 el KLM @ 80 feet • 20 m 5 el Telerex @ 120 feet • 17 m 4 el at 60 feet

Some of the reasoning before even looking at HFTA of the antenna choices per tower… The 40 m mono and the 20 m mono both play really well on the current 90 feet of Rohn 55 g in Louisiana and this will keep the 15 meter array away from the big 40 m beam I will have 230 feet of separation between towers and unless I am working Asiatic Russia over the pole the antennas will “never” be pointed at each other. The most beneficial stacks from the new QTH are on 40 m per HFTA , so I will build those with a stacking box from WX 0 B

why a second tower ? I need one to support a 160 m “T” which worked great with just a few radials and will get the radial system it deserves

Low band antennas seem so much easier with 57 acres ! • 160 m Top loaded vertical with Sixty 135 foot radials under it • 80 m Four square with a 72 foot diameter broad cloth area under each vertical • Three element Hi-Z array spaced considerable distance from any metal objects (buildings, towers or fence lines) • 9 el YCC low band rcv array • One Traditional Beverage for Europe and to use as a standard when comparing performance of the Hi-z and the YCC rcv arrays • Eventually I will use the Back Plot of land (which is square) for an 80 m Rhombic with 5 wavelengths per leg

My First Antenna at Area 57 Meet the Vee Beam or Half Rhombic

The Vee Beam Basically an Inverted Vee laid on its side But with one big difference Very long legged Here the fed point is pretty low only about 35 feet high However the legs are each 350 feet long Enclosed angle at fed point is 45 degrees And yes she works well, but won’t rotate

So now let’s look at some HFTA Images…. (This is the 140 ft South Tower)

This is what the TO angle looks like

Area 57 Looking towards EU

Take Off angles to EU

The House in the Barn is coming along very nice • It is now on the concrete slab and all the rough plumbing and some of the finished plumbing is done. • The Barn Doors are now all closed in All the walls are up and the walls tied together with rafters • My first Beam is in the air (4 el 17 meter OWA) at 43 feet on a tilt over mast

September 2015

October 4, 2015

4 el 17 m OWA K 5 SL design On a 40 foot tilt over mast Also seen is the Ladder line to the fed point of the ‘Vee Beam’ Oct 12, 2015 KG 5 VK