The Journey to Area 57

1. The Journey toArea 57 Finding landin TexasTo live and grow big antennasby KG5VK

2. 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 

3. The hunt begins to find at least 5 acres of land in TexasThe requirements are simple • Not within any city limits • Zero tower restrictions other than FAA rules • Low Noise (No QRN) above S3 • 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)

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

5. Tools we used when considering a Piece of land… • HFTA was used before any site was seriously consideredOne 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 K3 and a mobile antenna • Even sitting under the power lines at the front gate Area 57 showed the lowest noise (Less than s3 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

6. 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

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

8. 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 outWe initially thought we might make it livablethen 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…

9. So portable buildings is the immediate solution Longer term is add a concrete foundation to one of the nicest metal Barnsand build a house within it (size 36x30) A 4 inch pad of concrete is planned

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

14. This is just one of Five Ponds on the property

15. This is the North Plot

16. This is the Rear plotWhich is perfect for an 80m Rhombic pointed NE / SW

17. 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 N5AW 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 NR5M (Houston) and Jay WX0B (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 NR5M 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 

18. Let’s not re-invent the wheel Fortunately hams still love sharing and an email to Marv N5AW, 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 K9CT station and antenna farm design hosted at…http://wwrof.org/webinar-archive/planning-your-contest-station-by-craig-thompson-k9ct/ 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.

19. Marv NA5W 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

20. Area 57 Antenna FarmRev.4.1 (Oct 2015) • Two Towers - Rohn 45G @ 110’ & 55G at 140’ • Mono Banders on 40m,20m,15m,10m and 17m • KT34xa w M2 upgrade (Tri-band) • One 80m Rhombic • Two Bi-Directional BOG antennas (NE/SW & NW/SE) • 160m Top Loaded Vertical (used during W1AW/5 at KG5VK in Louisiana) • Three Element Hi-Z vertical rcv array • YCC Nine element low band RCV array • 80m Four Square

21. Suggestions from Friendly Hams From the go Big or stay in Louisiana comes this one…KA5M – 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 40M 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 80M. But to really set your station apart, a 160M 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, KA5M

22. However Marsh does have some excellent albeit more “practical” ideas….. • Circle 8 (200’ radius) low noise receive array for 160, 80, & 40M  • 160M - 135’ Vertical with 64 – 135’ ground radials  • 80M – 4-Square Vertical Array  • 40M – Yagis at 210’ and 105’ Tower 1  • 20M – 5L Yagis at 120’, 80’, and 40’ Tower 2  • 15M – 5L Yagis at 90’, 60’, and 30’ Tower 3  • 10M – 5L Yagis at 60’, 40’, and 20’ Tower 4  • Large Tribander (20, 15, 10M) at 70’ Tower 5  • All Yagis independently rotatable – and/or - stacks on 40, 20, 15, and 10M can be turned together using “Master – Slave” controllers.  • This should at least get you “in the game”. KA5M

23. A Plan (Revision 4.1) Dated 6 Oct 2015 110 foot tower (Rohn 45G) North Tower • Tri-Band M2 36xa @ 110 feet • 15m 6 el @ 60 feet • 10m 5 el @ 50 feet140 foot tower (Rohn 55G) South Tower • 40m 4el (M2 LLDD) @ 140 feet • 40m 4el KLM @ 80 feet • 20m 5el Telerex @ 120 feet • 17m 4el at 60 feet

24. Some of the reasoning before even looking at HFTA of the antenna choices per tower… The 40m mono and the 20m mono both play really well on the current 90 feet of Rohn 55g in Louisiana and this will keep the 15 meter array away from the big 40m 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 40m per HFTA , so I will build those with a stacking box from WX0B

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

26. Low band antennas seem so much easier with 57 acres ! • 160m Top loaded vertical with Sixty 135 foot radials under it • 80m 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 80m Rhombic with 5 wavelengths per leg

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

28. The Vee Beam Basically an Inverted Vee laid on its sideBut with one big difference Very long leggedHere 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 

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

30. This is what the TO angle looks like

31. Area 57 Looking towards EU

32. Take Off angles to EU

33. 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 inAll the walls are up and the walls tied together with rafters • My first Beam is in the air (4 el 17meter OWA) at 43 feet on a tilt over mast

34. September 2015

35. October 4, 2015

37. 4el 17m OWA K5SL 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 KG5VK