Amateur Radio Station AB8KO
Welcome to my Ham Radio web page.
My name is John
I am an Extra Class Amateur Radio Operator
My Call Sign is: ab8ko
I have held previous ham radio call sign : n8owm
I Live in Michigan's tranquil, although quite economically depressed Upper Peninsula, near a small community called "Crystal Falls, Michigan"
My Grid Locator is: EN56tc.
[Scroll down through this page for a look at my current shack and some of my favorite antenna designs ] Bands I'm active on: 160 meters throu 2 meters SSB & AM 2 meter & 440 MHz FM on a limited basis and while mobile Modes I prefer: SSB, PSK31, RTTY, Hellschreiber, Olivia, et.al. I also LOVE working aurora backscatter and tropospheric ducting, inversions etc on 6 & 2 meter SSB |
Crystal Falls, MI
Updated Thursday, September 09, 2010 5:54 AM
Clear | 39°F | High: 62°F
Low: 39°F
Wind: 3 mph
Humidity: 100%
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Friday
68° / 53° | 
Saturday
66° / 50° |
Sunday
66° / 49° |
Monday
66° / 47° |
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This is my current operating position as of June, 2010
VERTICAL ANTENNAS
the "HoneyBee" ground mounted vertical by AB8KO
This is my "HoneyBee" Ground mount vertical antenna. It is 2 inch diameter Schedule 40 Alloy tubing with a 2 foot diameter Stainless steel salad bowl upside down at the top for coronal discharge and capacitive tophat loading. The antenna's design band is 6 MHz shortwave ( 1/4 wavelength) , it's secondary design band is 17 Meters ( 3/4 wavelength)
The antenna performs spectacularly on both bands without an antenna tuner, and loads on 40 meters thru 10 meters adequetly with an antenna tuner.
The feedpoint is detailed in the second picture above. It sits atop a 100+ year old blue/green glass bell insulator salvaged from a very old high tension power line which was being
taken down in Crystal Falls, Michigan. As with all ground mounted vertical antennas, the more resonant ground radials that are installed, the better it will perform in poor soil conditions.
Mine sits at the edge of an artesian ground spring in very iron rich soil, so I can get away with a minimal number of radials.
copyright protected design 2000 A.D.
"Excalibur" multi-band Ground Mounted, Tophat Vertical by AB8KO
Next we have my personal favorite of my antenna designs.
The "Excalibur" multi-band tophat Ground mounted vertical.
This antenna carries a 6 foot diameter alloy tophat at it's top.
The antenna performs superbly on 40 meters through 6 meters
and radiates fairly well on 75 meters as well where it is an electrical quarter wavelength.
The antenna REALLY excels on the 20 meter band !
the bottom half of the antenna is 4 and 1/4 inch schedule 40 alloy and the top half of the radiating element
is 2 inch diameter schedule 40 alloy.
The tophat is made from 4 inch wide alloy flac C-channel and is 6 feet in diameter.
This antenna is legendary in it's transmitting performance
and is hard to beat for medium wave reception.
I spent around 6 months designing this marvel, and built it inside of 2 days :-)
The rest is history ;-)
copyright protected design 2000 A.D.
"The Stinger" 40 meter quarter wave & 15 meter 3/4 wave ground mounted tophat vertical
( picture coming soon )
"The Stinger" was my first departure into the construction of a ground mounted quarter wavelength vertical antenna
years ago. It is constructed from 2 inch diameter, Schedule 40 alloy tubing with a 15 inch ford truck hubcap
mounted at the top for coronal discharge and capacitive top loading.
This antenna's design band is of course 40 meters, and it works extremely well there
and is quite broad banded.
The antenna also performs superbly on 15 meters as a 3/4 wave ground mount, and the tophat
brings the radiation angle down closer to horizon.
The tophat is key to a quiet vertical antenna !
as are ground radials, which are mostly resonant in length but I do use several
random length ground radials as well.
You MUST also provide a VERY good DC ground for the coax shield at the feed point.
copyright protected design 2000 A.D.
Skywire loop.
a 274 foot rectangular loop made from AWG #14 stranded, insulated wire up at about 40 feet.
Feedline is about 38 feet of 450 ohm ladder line feeding the northwest corner of the rectangle
and coming down to a 4:1 remote balun outside, and a short run of RG-8U coax coming into the shack.
This antenna radiates will on all bands from 80 meters through 6 meters.
No tuner is required from 17 through 10 meters with a VSWR of less than 1.7:1 on these bands.
204 foot inverted vee
This is a 204 foot doublet, hung as an inverted vee
it is made from AWG #10 stranded insulated wire
and center fed with 64 feet of 450 ohm ladder line, down to a 1:1 5kw current balun
then 275 feet of 75 ohm RG-11U coax up to the shack ( buried of coarse )
This antenna is a multi-bander from 160 meters through 6 meters and radiates extremely well !!!!!!!
It does a VERY superb job on medium wave listening and SWL also.
( more to come ) de AB8KO