7 acres per Rhombic Array an area of 5 football fields
- skylarkcolo
- Mar 2, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 8
"K0UO, Miles of WIRE, in the AIR, and ON the AIR daily"
The Best Antenna is one that is "In the Air and On the Air"! As any good antenna experimenter knows, the more antennas the better, that way you can test and see how they are really working. You won't know you have a good antenna if you can't compare it with others!
"You need some Game, get the Gain"
If you’ve ever fiddled with antennas, you know that not all antennas are created equal. Some seem to pull in signals like a magnet, while others barely catch a whisper. That magic number behind this difference? Antenna gain. And trust me, understanding why antenna gain testing matters can totally change your game, whether you’re chasing DX, running a contest, or just trying to get crystal-clear reception.
K0UO test largest outdoor ham STEM antenna test farm and range in the world,
With a variety of antennas available and you can use the antenna that is generally more optimum for the particular distance, direction, and time of day is better than using an amp. All the antennas at K0UO have been field measured in the Far field, so I know where the RF goes.
FCC ASR Tower file @ https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=2614222
The Voice of America antenna system at the Bethany, OH Relay Station used re-entrant Rhombics, which was 90% efficient by re-phasing the power instead of heating up termination resistors, in this system. My antennas also uses the re-entrant system, the Rhombic is terminated in a transmission line, which in turn is coupled back to the input through the proper voltage-matching and phasing networks. I'm using the array on many HF ham bands 160 meters to 6 meters, which involved considerable engineering time to get it right, this was not needed by the VOA in the 1940s, they only used a few frequencies.
I am now using the biggest HF Re-entrant Rhombic arrays, and they are the highest forward gain HF antennas with its 90% efficiency, now with very high gain, and low noise receive characteristics. So, the Rhombic Arrays can beat the massive stacked HF beam arrays that I had up before.
With the four rhombic arrays and three V-beams, the K0UO antennas effectively cover 14 directions, every 25°, the beam width of each array.
A Big advantage of all long Traveling wave antennas are known for fantastic Improvements in the reduction of QSB fading, for both transmit or receive. The Rhombic is the antenna that won WW2 for the west, used by both the VOA, DOD, and Wire services
It is like Diversity, theses large arrays cover a lot of area. My station uses miles of wire, so you are both listening and transmitting signals coming and going at different angles. Signal-to-noise ratio (S+N/N ratio, or SNR) is one technical aspect not too many amateurs give a second thought about, however if you can't hear them you can't work them. This is very apparent on audio reception, long Traveling wave antennas eliminates much of the audio amplitude fading for both transmit or receive. The RF signal is almost never in a stable phase relationship at both places at the same time. This means the signal will have random phase and amplitude differences. The arrival angle and polarization of incoming signals will change. This generally results in the fading, by having many wavelengths of wire in the air, the chances are that while one experiences a fade, the other will not. The power is in the diversity size of the array and what you can now hear with out QSB fading. Traveling wave antennas are just quieter and have substantial noise reduction. That is why so many people use the Beverage receive antennas. Traveling wave antennas are very unique and unlike many other antenna in common use, and modeling will not show this major advantage.
NOTE, Don't underestimate the performance of the Rhombic, unless you have personally built and used one.
TO SEE the complete Blog list check @ https://www.k0uo.com/k0uo
The KØUO Rhombic Antenna Farm in Kansas, consisting of many acres, with "Miles of Wire in the Air & On the Air". Best known as an antenna Experimenter, Ragchewer 1st and DXer for fun! "It takes years of Passion, Hard work, and Commitment to build a great station".
The K0UO antenna test range site makes use of the 4KS Walz airport and its surrounding area as a practical learning environment for STEM (Scientific, Technical, Engineering, & Mathematics) antenna projects in a real-world outdoor setting. If your group has a university aerospace or antenna research STEM program, please let me know.
The KØUO Rhombic Antenna Farm and Antenna Test Range: Home to the World's Largest amateur radio (ham), High Frequency (HF) Wire Arrays, miles of wire in the air and on the air daily.
Each one of K0UOs rhombic's take between 6 and 7 Acres of property 1200 foot end to end