Priorities

The typical POTA/SOTA activist has priorities very different from mine. In their case, they need a small, compact station that is easily transported, set up, torn down and packed away. The rig is often QRP and the antennas simple. It may be a telescopic vertical, mag loop or an EFHW. They arrive at their activation site (hiking or driving in), look around for supports and then decide what antenna to deploy from the options they packed.

Those are priorities quite foreign to those of us that build large fixed stations. Indeed, my priorities are almost the exact opposite. That is the subject of this article: priorities. What do I focus on first, second and last? When my wish list is long (and growing) what do I tackle first? 

There is also the painful fact that building and maintaining a large station is a lot of work. I spend less time on the air than many hams with small stations, including the POTA/SOTA operators I alluded to. That's okay since I enjoy station work, so much so that I am happy to work on the station while guest operators have fun in the shack.

Summer is a slow time for me since the hay is growing in the tower fields, 6 meters monopolizes my attention and the warm weather entices me to engage in non-ham activities. All of that is now over. The bugs, which have been unusually fierce lately, are finally dying off as the nighttime temperatures dip close to the freezing point. In other words, this is primetime for antenna and tower work.

There is much to be done and only a limited time to get it done. CQ WW SSB is only a month away, and many of the year's major contests follow in quick succession. There are few non-contest weekends. The time has come to set priorities. No matter how ambitious I might be there will always be jobs that can't fit into the schedule and must be deferred to later, perhaps even next year or the year after.

In no particular order, this is my to-do list for the next one or two months:

• Remove the south-pointing TH6 and replace it with the new 3-element 20 meter yagi
• Install, test and tune the new (almost complete) 3-element 15 meter yagi
• Update the antenna switching system to accommodate the new yagis, involving cables and software changes, and new auxiliary switches to conserve ports on the 2 × 8 switch (all ports are occupied)
• Rebuild the 80 meter 3-element vertical yagi by taking down the central tower, building it back again higher and stronger (see picture above) -- the new guy anchors and concrete element pads are already in place
• Redesign the 80 meter 3-element vertical yagi for improved performance, then add yagi operation on the SSB band segment where it is only usable as an omni-directional vertical at present
• Repair the summertime damage to the Beverage receive antennas once I can safely enter the bush
• Complete the new antenna selection software
• Raise the XM240 to the 20-15 tower to join the new 15 meter yagi pointing south
• A new trench for at least two runs of Heliax to the 20-15 tower for the new antennas
• Purchase and install a new solid state HF amplifier
• Inspect all towers and antennas, and make repairs as necessary (done annually)
• Deploy the 16 radials for the 160 meter shunt-fed tower (also done annually)

That's just my station. I am also feverishly fitting in tower work for friends' stations. I keep busy! And that's just my ham radio life. With so much to do and so little time, setting priorities is critical. Despite not being the best or more prolific operator around, I want to do the best that I can with what I can have and can build. I make a list, arrange it by priority and dive in knowing that I'll never get it all done. That's fine: this is a fun and educational hobby, not a job.

On to my priorities. Even if yours are different from mine, the difference of perspective can be enlightening. 

#1 - Antenna Supports

Antennas needs structures to support them. While portable ops can make do with a suitable tree or a pop-up mast, the needs for a large fixed station are quite different. Height and capacity are the rule, where the only limits are money and land, or what one is willing to deal with for ongoing maintenance. Some go quite large indeed.

It is no surprise that when I first moved to this QTH, even while I was still living in the big city, that I put a shovel in the ground to build the foundation for my first tower. While that was going on I had already starting working on the first of my large guyed towers. 

In the following years more towers were raised. I can put up more but I've reached my personal objectives and I don't need or want the burden of maintaining even more towers. I fit my antennas onto the existing supports as well as I can, and antennas that don't fit don't happen.

#2 - Antennas

In a sense, antennas are the real top priority. But without supports they're useless. Thus they fall into second place. The support is paramount since if you have a tower even a simple wire antenna will perform well. A yagi close to the ground does worse. Once the supports are in place -- towers, buildings, trees or whatever -- your antenna dreams can fly.

High is good but strong is better. You want your antenna to last so the supports must be up to the loads placed on them. Assuming the supports are suitable you should utilize them to the maximum. That requires careful planning. You must have a clear idea of your objectives and understand the pros and cons of various antennas. Myths and misconceptions abound in the amateur community and you must assess antennas using facts and analysis, not the glib opinions that sadly abound.

Whether it's DX, contests, grids, rag chewing or another interest determine which antennas are best, limited only by your supports, budget, regulations and social pressures such as from your family. Within those constraints you want antennas that accomplish your objectives to the maximum.

#3 - Reaching the antennas

Transmission lines are not a minor afterthought as they are in many stations. With tall towers out in the fields every run is long, most in excess of 100 meters. They come down the tower, buried underground and then switched to the coax runs into the house and shack.

It is helpful to have friends in the business, especially those that regularly tear down old commercial tower systems. I am especially fortunate to have a friend like that who can provide me with lots of used and NOS Heliax. Most of it is LDF5 or the newer AVA5. Used connectors are also available and most of them can be reused. I won't mention what I pay but they are very affordable.

I have thousands of feet of Heliax deployed across my station, at least, if not more, than the total radial wire length on my 80 and 160 meter verticals. The new price of AVA5-50 is tracking the rising cost of copper and is now in the vicinity of CDN$7 per foot, or about $25 per meter when purchased on large reels. It will only become more dear as time goes on. Not many hams can afford that.

In the picture is some of the Heliax that I have in stock. There is a lot more out of the frame, from LDF4 to AVA7. More will be buried this fall and some is destined for friends' projects. I am pretty well set for life. I acquire LMR400, RG213 and other coax as needed for jumpers, short runs, chokes (CMC) and phasing lines. Most of that has to be bought new. Used braided coax usually means inheriting somebody else's problem.

Switching goes hand in with a multiplicity of transmission lines and antennas. What I need is more than the typical in-shack manual switch or automated 1 × N switch. 

I do all of my switching in the field with remote switches (mostly home brew) and endless quantities of Cat5 (8 conductor) control lines. Antenna selection is automatic by band and operator selectable by mouse click.

Keeping good records and tagging cables saves many headaches when troubleshooting and install new antennas and switches. I am fortunate to have had few problems with the many switches and kilometers of cable in my station.

#4 - Equipment

Well down the list is the item that is at the top of most hams' priorities: shack equipment. This includes transceivers, amplifiers, keyers, PCs, software applications and other operating aids. My reasoning is simple: a poor rig, even ancient or fully manual, paired with a good antenna is far superior to a poor antenna connected to a top of the line rig.

Yet eye candy regularly attracts many, while the antennas and supports come second or third. I can understand the reason because for most hams putting up towers and big antennas is difficult to impossible. A well laid out shack with state-of-the-art equipment is beautiful to behold. I don't value prettiness very much, and with few restrictions on towers and antennas I prioritize the latter.

As the antenna systems mature I am paying more attention to the equipment. The transceivers that I own are becoming more modern and I plan to have modern solid state amps before the year is done. More software changes are in the pipeline to simplify antenna selection and rotator control. You can see a few of these items on my to-do list above. 

#5 - Cleanliness

This is a broad topic that I struggled to give a single label. What I am trying to convey is that, for me, function takes priority over form. That is, make it work and only then make it "clean". Let me give a few examples.

Look at the picture immediately above. Does that look clean? Of course not! But it functions very well. The base of the Trylon tower near the house is where I put the 2 × 8 switch, auxiliary switches to conserve ports, Heliax terminations and manually crimped cross-connections between control cables. I have to refer to my extensive notes before touching any of it so that I don't accidentally cause trouble when making changes!

Could I clean it up? Certainly. But it works so why mess with it. Spending hours to clean it up would make it pretty yet change little. As infrequently as I need to make changes (adding antennas, transmission lines, switching) it is sufficiently navigable. Function over form.

It is frequently hammered into our heads that BPF (band pass filters) and CMC (common mode chokes) are vital station components (SO2R and multi-op contesting) that must be used or switched for every antenna when it goes up. No, not really. Yes, these devices will clean reception (less QRN & QRM, and inter-station interaction) but are not absolutely necessary. I've operated SO2R without BPF and CMC, and although there are problems those can usually be worked around.

CMC are installed as necessary, but always when a big antenna goes up and the feed point is inaccessible from the tower or it is part of the phasing lines for stacked yagis. BPF were eventually built and installed in my station, which makes for happier operators. High power BPF after the amplifiers would be even better but from experience they are not critical in my station. Maybe I'll increase their priority when I complete the migration to solid state amps.

For operator selection of antennas, the first system was manual and the second was a single software UI (user interface). The next version will give each operator their own UI and eventually touch control. The many rotators are yet to be software controlled which means they must be within the reach of both operators for direction readout and rotation. For now it works; function came first with cleanliness to follow, eventually. 

The same principle applies to my gradual migration from relatively inexpensive manually tuned amps to broadband solid state amps. Since nobody on the other side of the QSO cares how the amps are tuned they don't really impact results. That is, other than the few seconds needed to re-tune after band and (sometimes) antenna changes.

My priorities this season...

In light of my priorities and the long to-do list presented above, I have a plan for how to attack it. The jobs that will get done are ones I deem highest priority or reasonably easy to fit into the available time. Several can be done indoors when the weather turns too cold for most outdoor work.

There is also quite a lot of maintenance to be accomplished, which is a never ending item on my list. For example, an accident with a tractor was unkind to one of the guy anchors for the 80 meter yagi rebuild. If all goes well the antenna rebuild will be done by CQ WW SSB.

The new 15 meter yagi will go up shortly. Its side mount bracket is already installed on the tower. The auxiliary switch for it is being built. It won't require any of the new Heliax. Then the TH6 will be retired and replaced by the new 20 meter yagi. It, too, requires no new Heliax, and both it and the 15 meter yagi should be ready in time for CQ WW SSB.

A new solid state amp hasn't been ordered but once done it'll be here within days. I have been slow to choose from among several alternatives. My top choice has several negative points that I would like to address being spending the money. An expense of this amount justifies careful thought. There is no amp that is perfect for my needs, and none of the big ones are inexpensive. 

...and beyond

Although I don't want another tower I am contemplating one anyway. It would be located far from the others. Its height would be modest to support a few small yagis for 40 through 10 meters. Perhaps the TH6 and XM240. Its intended use is for an in-band station that would be nice to have during multi-op contests. 

The antennas need to be far enough away and suitably oriented to minimize interference with another kilowatt station on the same band. I've operated an in-band station elsewhere, which can be a lot of fun and add significantly to the score. A further benefit is that it keeps more operators operating rather than impatiently waiting for a vacant seat. Well, it's just a dream at this point.

There are other projects being contemplated. Nothing too big or challenging, just enough to make a difference and continue the journey I began almost 10 years ago. How time flies. A retrospective of the past decade is planned when the anniversary arrives in the not too distant future. It'll be interesting to review how far I've come before turning my attention to 2027 and beyond.