I would like to suggest, for consideration, a slightly different approach to Emergency Communications HF Antennas at the 911 Center.
One of the major problems, in my opinion, with hanging an antenna on a tower is that it is constantly exposed to the elements, degrades from the day it is installed, and requires nearly heroic efforts (both climbing and scheduling) to troubleshoot and repair when needed.? And Murphy makes sure it isn't a pleasant sunny day when the need arises.
Given that Em Com Events are, thankfully few and far between, uncertainty about the status of an antenna can be a problem, particularly if the antenna is not routinely operated as a check out.? And that will happen.
When I designed our personal portable HF stations, I used several different free standing, self supporting, multi-band antennas with excellent results while making 400-500 Parks On The Air (POTA) activations over the last few years. POTA is an excellent activity for field testing and improving our stations' capabilities and procedures.
My suggestion would be to consider deploying antennas like or similar to the ones shown in the two videos below.
The way it could work is to prepare the building so that an antenna like those reviewed, could be set up outside on the ground with the feed line entering the building, which would be permanently wired to carry the feed line into the shack.? So the antennas would be stored until needed for practice or actual Em Com, set up outside and plugged into the building Feed Line entry point, then we can get on the air..
???
And it may be surprising, but you can effectively work the county, state, region, lower 48 states and into Europe with an HF antenna sitting 5 feet off the ground and Judy KC3JAS has the QSOs to prove it.? Check out her QRZ page.
If anyone wants to try these antennas at the 911 building, let me know.?
Like Paladin in the old TV Cowboy show, I? "Have Antennas???? Will Travel".
A note on my videos: Due to my Hoosier Drawl, you can change the video speed to 1.5x and I almost sound normal, which will shorten the run times.
First video compares two antennas, a dipole and a vertical, both mounted on a five foot tripod.
Second video evaluates what you get by elevating a dipole 20 feet.
Other KC3TL videos can be found here, several on antennas:
On Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 01:09:40 PM EST, Lasse kb3wbt via groups.io <kvantlars@...> wrote:
So, in essence no hf antenna what so ever....
How about a couple of fan dipole's?
Say 80m, 40m, 30m on one, and 20m to 6m on one.
Inverted V configuration.
Kb3wbt
Everyone,
This morning Allen K3HOC and myself spent some time at the Clearfield County EMA building trying to sort out the mess of coax antenna wires to come into the amateur radio station area.??
The long answer:
There are six coax leads coming into our amateur operations area.? We determined there were cables for the 6m band antenna, three Comet GP-9 UHF/VHF antennas, and one UHF beam antenna.? The sixth cable has nothing attached?to it.? We presume this was intended for the HF antenna.
Allen spent some time investigating?cables coming down the tower that potentially could be for our HF dipole antenna.? None appeared to be from the HF antenna.? So either the cable has become completely disconnected at the?feed point on the tower, the coax cable may have?failed, or the antenna itself is just toasted.? We won't know the answer to that until someone climbs the tower to?investigate and test things.??
The short answer:
We could not locate a cable that appeared to?be the HF antenna.? Allen is going to consult with the county officials and come up with a plan to move forward.??
It appears this is going to take a while.? But we will eventually get it fixed.
Thank you and 73.
John N3SPW
-- Cell Phone: (814) 553-5649
Lasse kb3wbt