It finally happened! Mike Cole, W5TMC finally got his 20m monobander antenna direct fed on December 3, 2013. We got lucky and had 1 last day of good weather before the December 5-6, 2013 ice storm hit. Normally towers as a general rule aren’t climbed much in December due to the poor weather conditions. We made an exception and snuck this one in. Santa Claus, aka K5CAJ, Casey Johnson, came by and climbed Mike’s North tower and repositioned Mike’s 15m monobander 90degrees out of phase with his 10m monobander and now both work fine being on the same mast/tower. As you can see, “The General†is on the ground barking out his orders to me for fixing his 20m antenna! His 20 meter antenna is about 55’ up on his South tower which provides a pretty good view of Roland, OK too! Looking down at Mike he seemed tiny but we all know he is anything but tiny! After putting Mike’s homebrew harness up and making the connections, the antenna had fine SWR numbers according to the analyzer. Now Mr. Cole is good for a while with his aluminum performing well. Good luck with the contests and the DXing! As Mike always says, “My door is always open!†Let him know if you’d like to contest at his QTH in one of the many annual contests that we like to participate in! You can certainly learn how to contest or how to log contacts.
73 & Good DX, my friend!
Jeff Ricketts, K5KDX
