The below article was in "Ham Radio Online". It was read by 40,000 hams in 120 countries. Over 1200 hams checked into the extra pictures that we had on the site

In 1957, I got my first ham license and had it for a year and let it lapse. I got back into ham radio in 1975. In the late 70's, I was listening to a pile up on a DX station in the South Pacific, when a very loud signal came on and made one call to the DX station.

The DX station just said "WOW" what a signal. The station was W6BHM in Oroville, California, which was about 35 miles from me. He was sitting on a hill running an 8 element beam. Right then, I decided to make a big beam someday if we ever moved out of town.

In 1984, we moved to the country on an acre and I started to collect antenna parts. I started to build the antenna in the late 80's and got on the air with it in the early 90's.

(click the image to the right to see larger picture)

After I got it built, I had it sitting on some sawhorses, two and a half feet off of the ground checking the SWR, when I heard it pile up on a station in Mexico City. So I pointed the beam that direction and made one call. I broke the pile up on the first call---Barefoot. I knew then that I would have a good antenna.

After I got the antenna up, I would usually talk into the South Pacific and they often would tell me that I had the strongest signal on the West Coast. My friend Larry Murdock, K6AAW, who is on the DX honor roll, would tell me, "I would hear you talking to the South Pacific and I wouldn't be able to hear the station you were talking to"... The antenna is a 12 element, 10 meter mono band on a 60 foot boom. The boom is made out of 2 inch sprinkler pipe. The element were picked up from fellow hams, who had them. The antenna was put together with u-bolts with and hose clamps. The mast is 2 3/8th diameter tubing out of a gas well. The totor is an old prop pitch motor from a World War II aricraft. I got it from K6AAW and had it rewired. The tower is made from one inch schedule 40 balck pipe. It is 3 ft square and 42 feet tall up to the blatform. From there it is another 4 feet to where the first antenna is. The top beam is a Wilson 7 element beam on a 40 foot boom. The antennas were a lot of fun to build and use.

Article appearing in the June 2013 Pages at http://ysarc.org

A NEW HF VERTICAL ANTENNA - BY KEITH EDWARDS, WB6GCL

I have been reading about the 43’ vertical and how great it is. So, I looked in the ads and saw a couple of them. The price just about put me down. $370.00 for a piece of tubing with a capacitor and inductor at the bottom - no way would I pay that for something that I could make. So, I started to make my 43’ vertical with some of my improvements to it. I started with a 29’ piece of 2 inch aluminum tubing which I cleaned up with steel wool. Then, to bring it to 43’, I added a piece of 1/2 inch aluminum tubing - 3’ 8’’. I painted the outside of the 2 pieces of tubing with a non-conductive paint. This keeps the RF on the inside of the tubing. Next, I fed the coax on the inside of the 2” at the base on one side of the tubing. What this does is - the RF starts on one side and goes in a circle up the tubing like a centrifuge. As it goes up, it gains strength, like added dB. When the RF hits the top of the 2” it is squeezed down and out the inside of the 1/2” tubing. This is like water being put from the hose into a nozzle. This also adds strength to the signal. I call the 1/2” my “RF Accelerator”. The braid of the coax is tied into my metal pump house. I plan on putting in ground rods around the pump house and also tie all the grounds into my water well casing. I think that my antenna has about 43 dB inside the antenna trying to get out. So far, I have worked 2 countries in Europe, New Zealand, South America, the Caribbean, Canada, and the East Coast with 400 watts QRP. If you would like to make one of these antennas, get a hold of Russ. The antenna does work well. P.S.... As you no doubt noticed the antenna leans to the West. This helps me work Japan

....... de Keith, WB6GCL

Click on the image for a larger picture.

(A response from Larry Murdoch, K6AAW).......

Keith asked me to come down and evaluate this monstrosity antenna he built! I was surprised to see such a sleek, trim, nice job. On paper and just by looking, it appeared to be the real thing, making even Cushcraft envious, but the results are what counts! He purports to have worked 5 stations, but 4 were all in Sutter, not world wide, and the 5th was me whistling “Dixie” in my MIC for testing!

The SWR is horrible, feeding 99% of the power back into the power lines, making the neighbor’s meters run backwards. One lady told me she hadn’t paid an electric bill in months! ...and he wonders why the pump house is always lit up!!

One of the things I would have changed would be to forget about the actual 43’, and bring the whole thing down to resonance with a 55 gallon drum for a top hat. That would bring it down to 7 MHz in only 10 feet tall.

73, Larry, K6AAW, Chief Op.