SOLID COPY  The Monthly Newsletter of the  Monongalia Wireless Association

Nominations will be reopened and election held at the October 15, 1996 meeting for the offices of President, Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer.

The Monongalia Wireless Association will once again participate in the Mountaineer Balloon Festival.

This exciting weekend consists of the set-up and operation of a special events HF and 2 Meter Station. We will also be involved with public relations work to promote and educate spectators of the advantages of the amateur radio hobby.

To make this a successful event, your participation is essential. Set up begins at 12:30 p.m. Friday, October 11, 1996 at the Morgantown Municipal Airport. The station will operate until the afternoon of Sunday, October 13, 1996. Help is needed for all phases of this event (set-up, operation, logging, public relations, and take-down). Come out, relax and help promote our hobby at the Festival.

73, Chris, AA8SL

Well it's October and time for the ARRL Sponsored Simulated Emergency Test (S.E.T.) We here in Monongalia County, Zone 2, and the State of West Virginia will test out our emergency communication talents and skills.

It's time to brush up on our message handling and formatting skills. Look in your call out kits; anything you need to update? Call out will be via the roster. If you're not a member of ARES/RACES it's time to join. If your information needs updating, let me know.

Remember our primary repeater is 145.430 and our backup is 147.075 (103.5 tone). If there are any questions, please call me at 296-5118.

73 Pepper, KA8ZOO

The next HF Group Meeting will be held on November 7, 1996 at the QTH of K3JT.

The West Virginia State Radio Council Meeting will be held on Saturday, October 12, 1996 at the 3-Ways Inn in Fairmont. For additional information contact Jim KB8VVT at 1-304-329-3333.

Don't forget that the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree on the Air will be held at Camp Mountaineer on Saturday, October 19, 1996. Contact KC8DFW or WA8YCG for additional information.

Nearly all my winter activity on the ham bands occur between 160 and 40 meters. As many of you know, here in the northern hemisphere world-wide communication is routinely available and considerably enhanced during the months between October and March on the two low frequency ham bands (160 and 80 meters) . The primary reason for this is the shorten length in the amount of daylight and the absence of electrical storms that plague these bands during the spring and summer months.

To better your chances for DX on these two bands, two items greatly increase your probability in snagging that rare 9M2 or VK9 station. One is a good modern transceiver and the other is a good SET of antennas. Notice I did not include a linear amplifier, although one would certainly help and notice I said set of antennas. A quiet location, such as what we have here in West Virginia, is a definite plus point.

My first winter (1995/96) in Morgantown I used a horizontal loop antenna. My 2 acre lot has a number of trees along the perimeter and an open area in the middle. I wanted a decent all-band wire antenna so chose to put up a 500 foot square loop using 12 gauge superflex wire and fed with ladder line. The height of this antenna ranges from a low of 35 feet on one corner to around 55 feet on another. My goal last year was to work W.A.S. on 160 meters, but I came up short with 47 (missed Hawaii, Alaska, and Nevada) and power out was about 90 watts. During several CW contests I could hear other stations working the KH6s and KL7s, but rarely could I even copy their call sign.

The winter of 1996/7 will probably be the minimum in the current sunspot cycle--another reason that world wide communication will be enhanced on the lower bands. For this season, I wanted to not only work my last three states on 160, but over the next couple of years obtain DXCC (100 countries) on 80 meters. So I earlier this year I decided that I would erect both a good quality vertical antenna and a special receive-only antenna to augment my station.

I used several amateur Internet sites including the antennas and contest reflectors to gather information and comments on what other amateur stations were using for low band DXing. One of my primary sources of information was the ARRL book by John Devoldere, ON4UN called Low Band DX'ing. I also had several local considerations and restrictions that I had to conform to in deciding what type of short vertical would best for my particular site.

Some of the guidelines that I had to follow were dictated by my wife Margaret. "No unsightly structures and no roof-mounted antennas (we have nice neighbors and let's keep it that way), no guy wires running through and into my garden area, and no coax hanging off the rear deck". Total cost was restricted to less that $500. Rather than build the vertical, which could be done, I decided to purchase one of the many verticals commercially available.

After about one month of thinking over all the options I chose the GAP Voyager - a 160 through 20 meter short vertical. All of the GAP users that I contacted (6) were pleased with the performance. One user praised 80 and 40 meter operation, but said that the antenna was unimpressive on 160. Several other users said their 160 meter operation was good to excellent. Still a few others said that performance on 20 meters was only average. Several users provided copies of log book entries for some of the DX that they worked while using the GAP.

The GAP is basically an all-aluminum tube, 45 feet high which may be ground- or elevated-mounted using a simple hinge bolt. A very distinctive 7 foot diameter capacitance hat fits directly atop the structure. The antenna is off-center-fed (at 27 feet) using preinstalled high-grade RG mini-8 coax. Three 57-foot ground radials are required, but not included with the purchase of the GAP. The GAP requires two guy mounted points, one at 25 feet and the second at the 36 foot mark. I used about 400 feet of dacron 3/16" line to attach the GAP to four guy anchors located 30 feet away from the GAP mount post. There are no traps, instead GAP uses special tuning rods that run parallel to the main tube that are used to obtain the frequency match for 20, 40 and 160 meters (the ground radials are used for the 80 meter match). I am not an expert in the theory of what GAP calls their asymmetrical vertical dipole.

I decided to mount the GAP on a 6" by 6" by 12' wooden post that was located directly on the perimeter of Margaret's garden and out of the way of all foot traffic. I placed the post into a 3 foot hole and filled it with about 150 pounds of quickcrete mix. I attached the GAP mounting brackets to the top of the post and secured them with two large stainless steel lag bolts. I could use two existing 4" x 4" garden fence posts for elevated guy anchors for two of the four required guy points. I convinced Margaret to allow me to put two new 4" x 4" posts - one in the garden but out of the way, the other in the yard. These posts would serve as elevated guy posts for the two remaining sets of guys. The guy ropes were attached at the six-foot level, sufficiently elevated so we could easily walk under the guy ropes when doing chores such as grass mowing.

Terry, K3JT, helped me carry the antenna out of the garage and over to the 6" x 6" mounting post. We carefully mounted it on two elevated (6 feet) temporary holding brackets. We then installed the capacitance hat and double-checked all connections. We soldered in the PL-259 and ran some SWR and impedance checks using Terry's MFJ Antenna Analyzer to get an idea of where the beast would resonate. Since I didn't have the radials connected we skipped 80m, but had good readings on 20, 40, and 160 meters. The horizontally mounted GAP had 2:1 SWR bandwidth of the entire 20m band, 90% of the 40 m band and about 75% of the 160 m band. Terry wanted to bring out the rig and work the Fuji Islands, but I convinced him to wait until the GAP was fully erected.

In order to reduce the visibility of the GAP to curious onlookers and to make the antenna site more "environmentally friendly", I decided to paint the shiny, reflective aluminum. After some inquiries, I settled on several cans of Rustoleum primer (several colors). I painted the top sections with the light gray primer and the bottom sections with brown, green, and black colors. I was careful to mask the feedpoint and the plastic insulator standoff brackets.

I had lots of amateur volunteers lined up to help me raise the gap and secure the guy ropes. But trying to get everyone together at the same time proved difficult. One promising morning was scrubbed due to heavy rains in the area. Later that week I gathered some of my neighbors and gave them a 10-minute instruction course on how to safely raise an antenna.

Raising the GAP was rather an easy job once you get it above the 30 degree point. We used large push-poles to help get the antenna up to that 30 degree point, then people simply pulled on their guys until the GAP was vertical. I figured by getting my neighbors to help in the raising of the GAP would make them a little less antipathetic to it and me should something negative come up in the future (like a remote instance of RFI).

Thanks to Terry, K3JT for manual labor and running the SWR checks; Jan, KX2A and Pepper, KA8ZOO for consultation and encouragement; and the many other club members who volunteered to help.

Next month: installing a Beverage receive-only antenna.

The next VE test session sponsored by MWA will be on Thursday, October 24, 1996 at 7 pm in the Engineering Sciences Building at WVU.

October 24, 1996 January 2, 1997 February 26, 1997 April 30, 1997 June 25, 1997

For additional information contact Jan Ditzian (KX2A) via one of the following methods.

 Telephone: 412-324-9160

 Packet: @ W8SP

 E-Mail: DITZIAN@GREENEPA.NET

If you are planning to attend one of the sessions, please contact Jan prior to the testing date so the VE team can properly prepare for the exams.

If you have articles for SOLID COPY please contact me via any of the following methods:

on packet at W8SP

by mail at
Rt 3, Box 421
Morgantown, WV 26505

via telephone (304) 296-8823.

via E-Mail:
 Norene_Arnold@wnpb.wvnet.edu

Articles for the November 1996 issue of SOLID COPY are due to me by Tuesday, November 5, 1996.

The October meeting of MWA will be Tuesday, October 15, 1996 at 7:30 PM in the Engineering Sciences Building.