Best base antenna for skip

The Russian woodpecker antenna has been on the website "English Russia" more than once. People have climbed and walked all along its catwalks with video cameras rolling. From these catwalks it appears one can reach many of the open line feeders strung between bays. Some appear to have been cut as though someone was trying to isolate antennas from the original transmitter. Being that the system is resonant on 40 meters, I wonder if a ham was there too? There are rumors of such activity. If you look close, behind some of the catwalks there is a copper wire screen attached to the structure which runs the entire length of the antenna to form a reflector for all of the wide band dipole elements.

Seems like the miles of copper wire making up the reflector would be more abundant and easier to rip out. Which incidentally in later videos seems to be happening on sections of the reflector. You have to admit, Jazz picked one antenna that would be hard to beat for DX. Now what size rotor is required to turn it?

Yes sir, I was being a wise guy. Although when you mentioned the name I did some more research on the antenna. I knew it could be electronically steered to some extent by I didn't know how narrow the beams could be formed or that multiple beams could be formed. For radar applications it can use fan beams and control the exact angle on the horizon of each scan line. I knew this could be done at higher frequencies but to see it in the middle of HF is surprising until you consider the enormous size of this thing.

Captain Kilowatt said:

My thoughts too Doc. Chernobyl went bang April 26 1986 while the DUGA-3 radar aka The Steelyard operated until November/December 1989.The Chernobyl plant was finally shut down in December 2000. Chernobyl itself had nothing to do with the demise of the DUGA-5 radar aka the "Woodpecker" even though it is within the 30 Km exclusion zone as it continued to operate for a few years.

From Wikipedia: "Although the reasons for the eventual shutdown of the Duga-3 systems have not been made public, the changing strategic balance with the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s likely had a major part to play. Another factor was the success of the US-KS early-warning satellites, which entered preliminary service in the early 1980s, and by this time had grown into a complete network. The satellite system provides immediate, direct and highly secure warnings, whereas any radar-based system is subject to jamming, and the effectiveness of OTH systems is also subject to atmospheric conditions."

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I don't recall hearing it much after Chernobyl but you guys could be right, i assumed Chernobyl took it out as it took out about a 30 mile radius which is still to this day desolate and fish and wildlife don't last too long. i watched a programme about someone fishing in coolant pools, some big wells catfish, plenty pike and zander, but most die prematurely and growth rates are abnormal. he was hitting some radiation hotspots regular.

I have also heard off hams using it.

they had more than 1 OTHR and I would have had one but my Dad told me to fuck off, Same as he did when i wanted to put an Avanti monnraker 6 on roof, was one hell of a good antenna thats for sure,

but hey who needs that shit when you can have HAARP, fucking with weather, taking out icbm's and fuck knows what else its capable of, no doubt a piece of Tesla's missing/stolen by US government work, the patents make interesting reading as does who funds it.


talking of OTHR's, one night i was out around 99 i heard the strangest thing, it rose from next to nothing to a crescendo then dropped again,sounded like 2 tone signal, this was around 27.535,

i thought what the fuck is that, i followed it as it rose in frequency till i lost it high on 27 mhz,

I returned to 27.535 and it came back, this time i realised it wasn't a changing tone at all as i followed it slowly with kc shift, it was a sine wave that was rising in frequency, i can only assume an OTHR or similar ionospheric tester sweeping hf, would come back to 535 every 10-15 minutes or so, anyone hear this before?

outwith woodpecker and numbers stations weirdest thing i've heard on radio and no-one in uk has heard of it.

if i jumped 10 kc i could wait on it coming and would get same off frequency pitch till it hit centre frequency then started going high again. never heard or seen anything like it since.


I dread to think how much a rotator would be for it Donald, but certainly one of the most impressive antenna arrays i ever saw, I'd have had a Cobra 148 gtl dx and zetagi bv2001 in that fucker in a sec with no thought about radiation, the radiation off the antenna itself couldn't have been much less than Chernobyl anyway at 10 MW, lol.

Yeah Doc you got me, I slipped up, but when I do it a tenth as often as you do I'll start to worry, like how a swr meter works, or 9ft of coax being a 1/4 wave inverter at 27 Mhz. fuck I'd be here for at least a week listing your fuck ups ,

and I would imagine Chernobyl may not have stopped it, but certainly wouldn't have been popular with anyone working there post Chernobyl, that's if the continued woodpecker even came from there and not one of their other sites, as accurate Soviet Union info is thin on the ground,

your military wasn't too clever at detecting the source,they had it narrowed down to the Ukraine, lol, Can land on the moon with flags that blow in the breeze and shadows that defy physics, a bit like most of your posts, but can't track a 10 MW transmitter with an antenna that beggars belief and a receiving one equally as big not that far from it. CIA, Central Imbecile Agency.

infact your hams had more success jamming it, ZERO. I bet you were one of them, lol

talked to a couple guys over the weekend using the jogunn v series. they have
good reviews on thier site.expensive though

I had very good luck with a Maco 4 element mounted horizontally. I also ran a Solarcon A-99 in a tree, and it worked very well. Had a horizontal dipole that did good. I kept them all on a switch, and used whichever one was picking up the best signals. It always amazed me that sometimes Australia would come in better on my A-99 than on my beam (even trying it long path). I've said it many times before, propagation does weird things to signals. To me, the absolute best bang for the buck on 11 meters is a 4 element beam. They aren't very expensive, can be mounted on a sturdy pole (emphasis on STURDY), and use a fairly cheap rotor to turn it. Or do like Homer, tie a rope to it and spin it yourself. Hey, whatever works! Another good one mentioned is the V Quad. Very cheap, and it's a good antenna.

Coolest use of junk I ever saw was a car differential mounted to the bottom of the tower, with a u-joint connecting the pipe that went up to the antenna. Steering wheel with rack was hooked to the axle end of the diff, and the owner could spin a Moonraker IV with it, and had the wheel tape marked for whatever direction he wanted to point it.

My point is, use what you've got, and spend money on the rest... and having multiple antennas is a great way to go, even for one band.

73,
Brett

I thought that Chernobyl had dry reactors

V Quad was mentioned... this stacked set belonged to Pete, NB999 up in Canada. RIP.



73,
Brett

I use a Sirio SY27-3 beam on the flat side. Talks skip excellent with a stock cobra 142 gtl on AM or SSB.

Im new to the cb world as far as "Base Station" goes. I talk on a galaxy 66v, And i just have a 17' striat antenna on the roof. Normaly talk to my buddies within 50 miles. When skip is working i talk 5-6 states over. Some guys do that all the time. I dont know what im doing wrong

I’m still waiting on more Ukrainian salvage.

My god man, wher can i buy one of them at ? I could probly talk 100 miles away if hooked to that.

There’s really only three that I would use one is the A99. IMAX2000 or whatever they call them these days and the hustler by Maco. If you talk to anybody that knows anything about CB Antennas I’m sure they will agree with me good luck and remember height is Might The higher you can get it the better and don’t buy cheap coax use either LMR 400, 9913 or RG8. Most people put up a base antenna and it stays up for ever so do it once do it right and you won’t have to mess with it for years