New Antenna in the ATTIC!

66′ Dipole ready for the attic!

Over the 3 day weekend I finally squeezed in some time to get my 66 foot ladder fed dipole up in the attic.  One leg of the antenna is basically straight, but the other leg had to do a bit of zig-zagging through the trusses – it gets a bit crazy up there!

The ladder line drops down into my garage and then down to the basement where my shack is located.

Last night I built the BL2 1:1 or 4:1 balun from Elecraft.  The ladder line terminates at the balun and a 3′ piece of coax goes from the balun to my KX3.

Wrapped this all up last night about midnight – and then started doing some testing.  The internal tuner on the KX3 tunes ALL bands 40-10 meters almost down to 1:1 SWR.  Very nice.

I tuned around 40 meters and only heard a couple stations that time of night.  The noise level last night was between S4 and S5 – not sure if this is the normal noise level or not, but I suspect it is.

I did a bit of testing using the RBN – I called CQ on 40 meters for a few minutes and ended up with spots North, South and East of Kansas – good sign.  Then I switched antennas back to my 9:1 UNUN 30′ wire in the attic and did the same thing – so reports.  So good news is that my performance on 40 meters is GREATLY improved.  The reports on my 66′ Dipole were from 10-18 DB SNR on the RBN – all with 5 watts out of the KX3.

At 1:00 am local time I heard  K0GPA calling CQ – he was 559 here.  So I threw out my call and he came back to me with a 559 as well.  Turns out he was running a KX3 also – he was at 10 watts, and I was at 5 watts.  The QSB got him a bit, but I think he was using some type of loop – just missed what type.  It was a nice QSO with Bob – and it proved I was getting out!

So now I am looking forward to putting it through the paces a bit more and see just how much my reception will improve with more wire in the air!  I hope to at least have time to look at the waterfall tonight on 20 meters PSK31 to see what it looks like compared to my old antenna.

I will keep you posted!

Burke Jones, NØHYD, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Kansas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

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