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A Visit to WX0B

WX0B is located east of Dallas on the western shore of Lake Ray Hubbard. The property site is above the lake by 40 feet has a steep drop down to the lake. The lake being where it is enables the two towers to have a water path to the north through east and ending southeast. It also makes the towers appear as if they are 40 feet taller to RF. So my 160 ft tower is effectively at 200 ft!

Tower 1

WX0B rotating tower 40/20 meter stacks 2/2 150'/80' on 40 m and 4/4/4 on 20 m at 130'/90'/60'
This tower rotates at the 5 feet level. The lower 40 m Yagi rotates at 80 feet on a TIC ring rotator. The lower 20 rotates and is at 65 feet. The rotating tower rings are manufactured by Custom Metal Works.It is very well built, reliable, and safe.

  • The Beams are 2/2 elements Cal-Av 40 m at 150 ft and 80 ft on the tower.
  • 4/4/4 on 20 m, top one at about 135 ft.
  • 3 element 80 m vertical dipole array pulled away from the tower and bottom legs folded back into the tower and phased with the Array Solutions Triangular Array System.

Weatherproof enclosure at Tower 1, with StackMatches, coaxial cable lightning arrestors and control cables lightning arrestors.

 

View of the Pro.Sis.Tel PST-71 that rotates Tower 1, installed at base level.

Tower 2

WX0B Tower 2

Tower 2

Tower 2 Antennas

125 feet 10/15 m tower. The top antenna is a 4 element 15 m Yagi, and below it is a 4 element 10 m beam, etc.

  • 4/4/4 on 15 m
  • 4/4/4 on 10 m
Looking up Tower 2
Looking up at the 10 m/ 15 m tower. 4/4/4 on both bands.
Backyard at WX0B


A view from the backyard. The two towers are about 130 feet apart.

Yes, the big tower is in the front side yard. My XYL -N5CK- would have killed me if I obstructed the view of the lake with it.
So its in the front. We are in the country so its actually OK. There is a cow pasture across the road in front.

Tower 3

Tower 3 is a 45 foot crank up tower used for multiplier hunting and antenna testing among. A five bands wire beam antenna, the OptiBeam OB10W-5, is mounted on it.

160 m Vertical Antenna


160 meter vertical antenna's feedpoint showing heliax feed line and shunt coil

Here is the 160 m feed point. Notice the big green coil. It is the matching "helical hairpin" that transforms the feedpoint from 36 ohms to 50 ohms for a direct coaxial feed. It also doubles as the static bleed choke to drain off static charges. There is an AS-303U arrestor on the other end of the coax in the shack.  There are 32 radials buried under ground and bolted to the radial ring. We have great ground here so I was able to get 36 ohms feed impedance with just the 32 radials. I will add more later.

The vertical is approx 50 feet tall, and it has a wire that resonates it sloping up to the tower behind. The angle is approximately 45 degrees to the tower. There is an insulator in the wire at the resonant point. The other black Dacron rope you see coming down from the vertical is a back stay to keep things vertical.  The whole thing doubles as a flag pole for us.
Inside the shack  - Roy AD5Q at the key during CQ WW CW 2008 Two PowerMaster wattmeters are above the SixPak indicator in the rack panels. The blue box behind the white sheet of paper is the 80 m phased array controller.

Shared Apex Loop Array, SAL-30, at WX0B by the lake

StackMatch controllers above left IC-781. Beverage selection and Preamp controllers are in between the IC-781s.
Rotator controllers are the stacks on the left. BandMasters are the two small boxes behind the monitor.

(214) 954-7140