WD2XFJ Antenna - close-up of the 10-20 m beam employed as top capacity-hat.
WD2XFJ is now operating as an FCC Part-5 licensed high-power LowFER beacon. WD2XFJ has a CW identifier with Dave's address in Burbank in CW/A1A. There is a minute "blank" (gap) in the identifier for a silent period so another local DXer can receive through Dave's huge signal.
(S.P. McGreevy wirtes: I can receive PLI, soon to be WD2XFJ, in the daytime in the Owens Valley about 150 miles away from Dave's CW/A1A beacon, which runs about 50 watts input for about 1 watt ERP. I notice that sometimes it was better strength than the "UR" NDB idents from near Burbank Airport, carrier on 253 kHz, as well as the 337 NA (Santa Ana) idents too. WD2XFJ 185.300 kHz has very noticeable skywave reception at night in the Owens Valley, California (150 mi/240 km), often reaching 10dB over his daytime signal, especially at about 0400 local time to just as local dawn breaks.
WD2XFJ Antenna - close-up of the 10-20 m beam employed as top capacity-hat.
WD2XFJ Antenna feed-line pass-through into Dave's garage/shop. The radial wires leaving the wall are 4 counterpoise radials that are 70 feet long and about 10' above ground. My garage is in the center of the yard so the radials feed in opposite directions to the corners of the property. The property is built on a hillside over an old riverbed with very poor ground. These radials work extremely well at overcoming the shortfalls of a poor ground when used with a balanced tuner for 160-40 Meter operation has been verified by other local stations that over 20 dB of signal improvement has been obtained using the tuned counterpoise arrangement in comparison to 6: 8' ground rods and radials in the yard. It's also a whole lot easier!
1. VARIOMETER. This picture shows my adjustable variometer that has an Inductance range of 2mH to 6mH. It's "Q" is over 700, and is wound using 200 strand, #40 Teflon coated litz wire. The telfon coating is when using hi Voltages, and can be purchased by Kerigan Lewis in Chicago, Ill. The basic design shown uses a 6" diameter, and 5" diameter Plexiglas forms. A newer design currently in the works would use a DC motor to adjust the inside coil for remote tuning.
2. ART-13 TRANSMITTER. This transmitter is excellent not only as a ham transmitter for AM and CW, but when using the low frequency plug-in will also transmit 150 Watts of carrier down to 200Kc. It is easy to pad the oscillator and make it work through the 1750 Meter band (160 - 190 kHz). I have tried this with the transmitter shown with outstanding reception reports over 100 miles away on AM. It works very well on CW and MCW. An external Pi-network is required as the 803 plate final goes to an external binding post via a DC blocking capacitor. The power supply is also external and provides 1200, 400, and 28 Volts. Building a power supply for this makes it a big project!