A Great 20M Ham radio antenna

My good friend Gene in the mountains of Wyoming gave me these plans for a great 20M Ham antenna.

He writes:

Just for grins, let me tell about my own homebrew design, intended for simple field use. I put together a cheapie portable 20-meter vertical antenna a couple of years ago, that must have set me back all of $10 to $20 or so, and it was pretty effective. First time I set it up was on a camping trip up in the Uintas, and as soon as connected, I raised Italy! It is basically a quarter-wave vertical with 1/8 wave radials angling down from a feedpoint up 4' or more off the ground. The whole thing is around 22' high or so. The quarter-wave radiating section can be metal tubing or copper wire, either is effective for low-wattage (100 watts or less) usage. Materials can be gleaned from what is available, or inexpensively bought from Home Depot or Lowes or the like.

I'll describe the construction, so it could readily be duplicated by a reasonably handy person:

Cut two 12' lengths of PVC pipe, one of 2" and the other of 1 1/2", so they could slide together. Get four 4" long 1/4" brass screws/washers/nuts, and a little more than 80' of ordinary single conductor stranded/insulated 14ga housewire. (I had bought a 500' roll of it from HomeDepot and it's lasted me a while!) A 5' steel pipe I had lying around and a few screws and automotive wire connectors, 11 plastic or wooden tent stakes, plus a few feet of RG-8X coax with a PL-259 connector on one end, essentially filled out the bill of materials. Tools were the usual, a drill, screwdriver, etc.

I slid the two PVC pipes together so they overlapped about 1 1/2' in the middle - they needed to be at least 21' long after overlap. Drilled two 1/4" holes in the middle, through where they overlapped, so they could be fastened together, and another pair of holes 4" apart, the upper one 16 1/2' down from the top of the overlapped sections. Cut a piece of the housewire about 16 1/2' long, crimp/soldered a smaller connector on that end and a larger one on the other end (to fit the 1/4" bolt). Then I cut 8 chunks of the 14ga wire about 8 1/2 ft long, stripped a couple of inches of insulation off one end of each, and connected and soldered all of them together on that end, with a few inches of one wire left long for a connection to the coax. Stripped the insulation off the end of the coax for 3" or so, and crimp/soldered 1/4" connectors on each of the two leads. That was the basic fabrication before setup.

In the field, I rapped the 5' steel pipe into the ground a foot or so. (Should have gone deeper with a longer pipe, but that was what I had, and I wanted at least 4' sticking out of the ground. That deep wasn't far enough to stabilize the vertical upright, so I did end up needing to use some 1/8" poly rope for 3 guys, with their tops secured to where the PVC sections came together - probably a good idea in any case! I screwed the two lengths of PVC together in the middle. The 1 1/2" PVC was the top section, so I secured one end of the 16 1/2' chunk of the housewire to the top of it with a self-threading screw, and ran it along the side of the pipe as far as it would go, down to the upper hole of the two I had drilled there.

Ran the screws and washers thru the coax leads. Then ran the screw with the center coax connector through the upper hole, and the one with the coax shield connector through the lower hole (that is critical). I tightened the nuts temporarily. Time to raise the vertical!

With some help, I held the PVC pipe up vertically, and slid it over the top of the steel pipe. I found I needed to run the three guy ropes out equidistant about 15' from the base and stake them down well. Time to emplace the 8 insulated radial wires. I secured the connection of where all 8 came together to the lower screw connected to the coax shield. Then I ran out the wires equidistant from each other around the base and wrapped the ends around the non-conductive stakes and taped over the copper sticking out of the wire. Note that there is high voltage on the ends of those wires, so bare wire is a no-no -- they need to be protected from human/animal contact! The simple taping job was likely not enough -- it would be best to put a 3" insulator on the end of each and tape the connection, before securing to the stakes, but this was a quick-and-dirty installation. And it worked like a champ!

I hope you can get a decent mental image of this antenna as erected. Perhaps when Springtime comes to the Rockies, and we can see the ground again, I will put it back up and take some pix for posting!

Notes --
- For the 20-meter vertical, we need an overall length of at least 21' of PVC. To make the antenna more portable, it would probably be better to use 3 sections of PVC, with the top section being 1" pipe. Then each section could be about 8' long, more manageable. I suppose one could even use 4 sections, so long as the pipes were of graded sizes to nest into each other.
- I got the idea for the 8 radial wires only 1/8 wavelength long, descending on an angle to near the physical ground, out of a QST Magazine article of a few years ago, which reported on tests done with different radial configurations. The eight 1/8 wavelength radials on about a 45 degree slope from the coax feedpoint connection seemed to give very good results, even better than longer radials.

Ancient Grains - Quinoa

Here are some facts about Quinoa:

• Quinoa isn't a grain but a fruit. It is a relative of swiss chard and beets.
• High protein content (12-18%). Contains a balanced set of essential amino acids making it a complete protein source.
• Good source of fiber, phosphorus and is high in magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, copper, and riboflavin.
• Quinoa is gluten-tree and is considered easy to digest.

I cook use Quinoa just like rice. It can be used as a side dish, veges added to it, I even made rice pudding using Quinoa and it turned out wonderfully. 

To cook:

1 cup Quinoa

2 cups Water

Cook for 12 - 18 minutes, covered.

Some Quinoa needs to be rinsed off before using, it may have a film on it. I know that the Organic Quinoa that Honeyville Grain sells does not need to be rinsed off first.

~Karin

Ancient Grains - Amaranth

Here are some facts on Amaranth: 

• Amaranth means "everlasting ancient grain."
• Amaranth contains more protein than any other gluten-free grain and more protein than wheat.
• Amaranth is an excellent source of lysine, an important amino acid. Grains are notorious for low lysine content, which decreases the quality of their proteins.
• The amount, types, and digestibility of proteins in amaranth are more soluble and digestible than those found in wheat.
• Amaranth is second only to Teff in calcium content.
• Amaranth contains more magnesium, iron, and fiber than other gluten-free grains.
• When you add amaranth in amounts up to 25% of total flour used in gluten-free recipes you improve the nutritional value, the taste and texture of gluten-free baked goods

Cereal

1 cup Amaranth

2 1/2 cups liquid (water, or half water and half stock or apple juice)

Cook 18-20 minutes, covered. Do not overcook.

~Karin

The True Spirit of Americans

When the "Chips are Down"...this is the true spirit of the USA.

20 Signs of a Horrific Global Food Crisis

The following are 20 signs that a horrific global food crisis is coming....

#1 According to the World Bank, 44 million people around the globe have been pushed into extreme poverty since last June because of rising food prices.
#2 The world is losing topsoil at an astounding rate. In fact, according to Lester Brown, "one third of the world's cropland is losing topsoil faster than new soil is forming through natural processes".
#3 Due to U.S. ethanol subsidies, almost a third of all corn grown in the United States is now used for fuel. This is putting a lot of stress on the price of corn.
#4 Due to a lack of water, some countries in the Middle East find themselves forced to almost totally rely on other nations for basic food staples. For example, it is being projected that there will be no more wheat production in Saudi Arabia by the year 2012.
#5 Water tables all over the globe are being depleted at an alarming rate due to "overpumping". According to the World Bank, there are 130 million people in China and 175 million people in India that are being fed with grain with water that is being pumped out of aquifers faster than it can be replaced. So what happens once all of that water is gone?
#6 In the United States, the systematic depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer could eventually turn "America's Breadbasket" back into the "Dust Bowl".
#7 Diseases such as UG99 wheat rust are wiping out increasingly large segments of the world food supply.
#8 The tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis in Japan have rendered vast agricultural areas in that nation unusable. In fact, there are many that believe that eventually a significant portion of northern Japan will be considered to be uninhabitable. Not only that, many are now convinced that the Japanese economy, the third largest economy in the world, is likely to totally collapse as a result of all this.
#9 The price of oil may be the biggest factor on this list. The way that we produce our food is very heavily dependent on oil. The way that we transport our food is very heavily dependent on oil. When you have skyrocketing oil prices, our entire food production system becomes much more expensive. If the price of oil continues to stay high, we are going to see much higher food prices and some forms of food production will no longer make economic sense at all.
#10 At some point the world could experience a very serious fertilizer shortage. According to scientists with the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative, the world is not going to have enough phosphorous to meet agricultural demand in just 30 to 40 years.
#11 Food inflation is already devastating many economies around the globe. For example, India is dealing with an annual food inflation rate of 18 percent.
#12 According to the United Nations, the global price of food reached a new all-time high in February.
#13 According to the World Bank, the global price of food has risen 36% over the past 12 months.
#14 The commodity price of wheat has approximately doubled since last summer.
#15 The commodity price of corn has also about doubled since last summer.
#16 The commodity price of soybeans is up about 50% since last June.
#17 The commodity price of orange juice has doubled since 2009.
#18 There are about 3 billion people around the globe that live on the equivalent of 2 dollars a day or less and the world was already on the verge of economic disaster before this year even began.
#19 2011 has already been one of the craziest years since World War 2. Revolutions have swept across the Middle East, the United States has gotten involved in the civil war in Libya, Europe is on the verge of a financial meltdown and the U.S. dollar is dying. None of this is good news for global food production.
#20 There have been persistent rumors of shortages at some of the biggest suppliers of emergency food in the United States. The following is an excerpt from a recent "special alert" posted on Raiders News Network....Look around you. Read the headlines. See the largest factories of food, potassium iodide, and other emergency product manufacturers literally closing their online stores and putting up signs like those on Mountain House's Official Website and Thyrosafe's Factory Webpage that explain, due to overwhelming demand, they are shutting down sales for the time being and hope to reopen someday.