W3JDG – Jorge Duarte Station and Antenna Tour

The home station antenna installation is shown in Figs. 1-8. In these figures, the radiating element is highlighted in green, the counterpoise is in blue and runs to ground in red. Figs. 1 through 5 show different perspectives of the antenna. The feed point has a ground run mainly for static discharge protection. Fig. 6 shows how the effect of the moving tree top was managed: a screen door spring is used to pre-load the wire and to allow extension out to the amount of slack seen below the spring. This idea was remarkably robust and survived several storms until the tree itself was damaged by a storm. Fig. 7 shows how the feed exited the building to the antennas: a 6:1 transformer is contained in the exterior box (another is on the interior) such that a transition is made to 300 ohm flat parallel conductors that can be passed through windows without damage. Fig. 8 details how the transmission line runs from the exit point to the antenna, remaining hidden. The antenna wire itself is POLY stealth: a multi-stranded copper weld 26 gauge wire with a black, dull polyethylene insulating sheath so as to avoid being shiny and more easily seen. The nominal breaking strength of this wire is about 25 lbs.

The rig is a TS-930SAT with a Phoenix Contact Quint SMPS power supply and an CompuDigital regulator board. The radio has a full complement of Kenwood IF filters.

Both this and the QRP station are examples of stealth installations within apartment complexes that still allow for DXing.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

The QRP setup consists of:

Xiegu G1M G-Core SDR QRP Transceiver: (~$250 from Radioddity)
CW/SSB Transceiver
AM Receiver
5W Output
Spectrum Display (SDR perks!)
80/40/20/15m TX
0.1 – 30MHz RX
Two VFOs: Split-capable!
Built-in Keyer
100 memories
MFJ-971 Portable Antenna Tuner: (~$150 from MFJ)
Rated for up to 100W
Has a dedicated long wire antenna input
Manual tuning, but gets the job done!
Talentcell Rechargeable 12V DC Portable Li-Ion Battery Bank: ($32.99 from Amazon)
6000mAh Battery Pack
Includes a wall charger!
This battery pack can fuel this little rig for weeks!
I can also run the rig plugged into the wall charger for the battery, which is a nice plus!
3D-printed mini CW paddles: (~$11 from AliExpress)
Nothing fancy, but gets the job done well!
Adjustable distance for paddles

It is all held together by 3M Velcro strips, and packs quite easily inside a camera bag.

For the Antenna, I’m using around 35ft of Super Antenna MS135 SuperWire (#18 Stranded wire, ~$0.32/ft): I connect it to the tuner with a Banana Plug into the long-wire terminal, it then runs up the wall and coils near the ceiling of the room about 1.5 times around.

It’s not a wonderful setup, but I successfully worked Los Angeles, CA and a station in Northern Virginia on 20m SSB during October 4th’s California QSO Party. Regarding DX, I have heard several stations across the globe: Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and other stations in Eastern Europe. I failed to snatch any of those contacts due to huge pileups, and working QRP through a tuner into a very inefficient antenna. But it has been fun nonetheless! I can’t wait to try digital modes on this setup. Surely it will do better than SSB!

Fig. QRP 1

Fig. QRP 2

Fig. QRP 3

73 de W3JDG – Jorge Duarte