I put up a 120ft (37m) tower in 1987, probably the best investment I ever made in
myself. I've had a lot of fun with it! My DXCC standings really took off in
the next few years. Major milestones included 5BDXCC Oct/89, Mixed Honor Roll
Nov/92, and Phone plus CW Honor Rolls Oct/94. At one time, these goals had
seemed impossible, but there's not much you can't do if you really want it!
The first antennas on the tower were a HB 2 element triband quad, an 80 inverted
vee at 110ft, a 40 delta loop at 110ft fed horizontally at 70ft, and a 160 quarter wave
sloper at 120ft.
A Cushcraft A3 tribander + 40 meter dipole replaced the quad and delta loop in
93, enhancing 40m performance.
A
Force12 C4XL replaced the A3 in 97, once again enhancing 40m with a 2
element yagi.
The 160 sloper gave way to a full size loop with apex at 110ft fed vertically.
Various other wire antennas came and went over the years, mounted in our
tall trees- especially bobtails and half squares for 40 and 80 meters.
I put up a full size 80m quarter wave vertical wire with about 55 radials
in Jan/99. It usually does a little better than the inverted vee.
A Kenwood TS-930 was added in 94 for WARC
capability- three new bands to chase DXCC countries on! I completely rebuilt an
old Heath Warrior amp in 95 using GG 813's, and added a Drake L7 amp in 97.
In 1996 I changed my call from K3YGU to
K3KY
. It is much easier to work DX with the new call.
A Tennadyne T7 log periodic was installed on my second (40ft) tower in May/00 to
enhance high band performance.
I now have 199 out of 200 towards 5BWAZ,
and enjoy participating in the
Toplist award rankings (currently 2602 countries 9-bands.) I achieved 160m DXCC
in 96, started RTTY DXing in Nov/98 and reached 100
confirmed in Apr/00.
For me, the 1990's were a fun and productive
DX Decade!
P.S. That C4XL antenna enabled me to work
P5/4L4FN on 15m SSB and thereby
finally
achieve DXCC Honor Roll Number One in 2001- the pinnacle of my ham
DXing career!
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K3KY's 15 Minutes of Fame (70K .jpg)
