Half Square Array

I’ve been looking for some new wire antennas to try. The Half Square (HS) looks interesting. It is two 1/4 wave vertical elements, with a 1/2 wave horizontal element connecting them. The ARRL Antenna Book has a writeup that looks interesting. I really need something cut for 20 meters and this might be worth trying.

The HS is usually fed at one of the top corners with coax. One benefit is that it is forgiving to symmetrical distortion of the design (like bending the legs due to mounting restrictions). The downsides are that it is high-Q (thus narrowbanded – bandwidth is less than a dipole) and it appears to be a primarily vertical polarity antenna. L.B. Cebick  provides a model of the HS for EZNEC (along with anything else you could ever want to know about antennas). 

What really makes this antenna interesting is the fact that it can be built as a 2-element array (or wire beam). This is attractive to me due to my operating QTH, where only the water is to my East. In any US-based operating, I want to push more of my power to the West. I may also mount it close to the ground, to improve NVIS performance for QSO parties.

VA QSO Party 2008

The 2008 VA QSO party was held last weekend. with many members of our Fauquier Amateur Radio Association (FARA) club participating. We appear to have better scores than last year, and everybody really enjoyed the activity and competition.

My score was better than last year, but not great (about 300 QSOs). Antennas were the main problem. My one NVIS dipole worked great on 80m, but not very well anywhere else. My 6BTV vertical was useless for this short range activity. Even on longer contacts, the dipole seemed to be better. My all-band COBRA dipole, in an inverted Vee configuration, also did not work very well at all.

See my antenna posts to see where I go from here. Hopefully, I will have some new and improved antennas for next year.

What is Ham Radio

Ham Radio (or Amateur Radio) is a licencsed activity permitting use of the airwaves for communication of all types. There are many different facets of Ham Radio, from talking using voice, to exchanging e-mail messages or files, to exchanging streaming video or using other digital communciation modes. Ham Radio is used by people all over the world.

Unfortuantely, many are not even aware of this hobby. The Internet gets all of the time. and attention of most people interested in technology today. In fact, one person I know referred to Ham Radio as “old man Internet.” Well, there may be some truth to that but ham radio is the Internet without spam, porn, or any type of commercial activity. It is a great way for people to learn about, and experimaent with wireless communications of all sorts.

Welcome

Today, March 23, 2008 I started this Blog. The main intention is to have a place to capture my activities in Ham Radio. My callsign is KG3V. I have been a Ham for many years, but just get “re-energized” in the past three years after a long inactive period.

So this will be my notebook for operaitng and experimenting. Hoepfully there is something useful for others as well. Feel free to leave coments – that is what this mode is all about.

Tom

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