New QTH antennas all complete

Dave Mueller

It took about two months, but I have finally completed all the work installing antennas at my new location. The Spiderbeam went up pretty easily, but the vertical took quite a bit of time to get it to work on 40/80/160, and the Beverages took the longest time, because I had to clear paths through thick jungle.

I got to shake down the station during the Oceania DX SSB contest last weekend. I made just over 1800 QSOs in 17 hours of operating. The location seems to be a winner.

Arrows point NW (Europe and Asia) and NE (North America) from my house. The takeoff toward Europe especially is fantastic. The house is at 560ft ASL.
The arrows show the direction and location of three Beverages I installed. 800ft for NA, 750ft for EU, and 500ft due south for Australia and New Zealand.
The receive antennas are switched remotely from here, with 12 VDC injected in the feed line. This is at the end of a 1000ft run of coax from the house. From here it is about 300ft more to each of the three antenna feed points. There is still plenty of signal so no preamp is needed.

The EU/AS Beverage terminates in an area filled with bamboo. Hopefully the Asian influence helps with receiving in this direction!
I really could have used a flame thrower to make a path through some of the thicker areas. The vines are incredibly difficult to get through – very strong and hourly progress is marked in feet.
The end of my European/Asian receive antenna has a nice view (looking northwest).
Here is the feed point of my low band vertical. The big coil provides loading for 160m. The smaller copper coil is for fine tuning resonance within 160m. The smaller aluminum coil is to match the antenna on 80 and 40m. Band switching can be accomplished remotely through the three vacuum relays.
My transmit antennas are all located at the edge of a 40ft drop-off. 40/80/160m top loaded vertical to the right, Spiderbeam and 6el 6m beam to the left.
Looking south at the house from a rock pillar on the other side of the road.
Looking southwest from the same point toward Orote Point and the Commercial Port showing the dramatic drop offs toward the ocean. The 3rd Marine Division had to fight up these cliffs during the Liberation of Guam. There are shell casings and bullets all over the area (this is NPS property).
Looking northwest from the same location, showing more of the cliff face and drop off.