160 Meter 5 Element Array

This antenna consists of a 124' Rohn 25 tower as a driven element with a WB0W insulator section. It is guyed with Polygon rod. There are four passive elements 66' from the vertical in the NE, SE, SW and NW direction. A relay is located at the base of each passive element to switch it to ground as a director, switch it to a coil to ground as a reflector or let if float. This essentially becomes a 3 element vertical yagi or a omni directional vertical. Switching is accomplished from the shack using the Green Heron Everywhere software and remote control device. The controller was made by Array Solutions.

160m controller for 5 element array using Green Heron wireless controller.

Radials were plowed in about 6" down so that the field could be planted for alfalfa. The radial intersections were silver soldered to a copper buss wire. Total area with radials is about 2 acres. Wire used was scrap 14 AWG copper THHN. About 25,000 feet of wire was buried. It took about 3 weeks full time to complete this job!

The completed and tuned feed system. The box is mounted to a 2" pipe. The balun/choke is 7 #31 ferrite to an 1 1/4" Hardline.

Hi-Z Receive Antenna System for 80/160 meters.

Antenna Layout

This video provides an overview of the antenna farm. Enjoy!

Aerial View of Farm

Towers from left to right, 160m, 40m, 80m 4 square, 20m, DB42, 15m, 10m/VHF and EME array. Shack is right of big building. This picture courtesy of Bill, WO9W taken in late afternoon.

Entrance Panel inside shack

bottom to top...

1 5/8 and 1 1/4 Heliax cables feeding lightning protection devices...ICE, Morgan Manufacturing, and Polyphaser devices. On the left are 4O3A high power filters for contest bands. Several Stackmatches are used for combining antennas with Green Heron Everywhere control. Green Heron rotator controllers and Steppir SDA100 controllers. Just above the HP filters to the left is a 4O3A Antenna Genius that is used primarily with the FlexRadio 6700 for SO2R switching on ethernet. The large antenna switch is a 12 by 4 antenna switch by Hamplus and controlled by GHE 16 port devices. 

All devices are powered by UPS and have surge protection devices. There is a local weather station and it is available on the internet....  Above the Hamplus, is a GHE 8 by 2 RX antenna switch for the receive antennas. USB hubs gather all the USB devices and connect to the server computer in the wiretray. The antennas, rotators and filter selection are programmed in the server and then each station may connect as a client for automatic operation. 

 

 

 

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