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 Previous: Spread Spectrum Inventor, Actress Hedy Lamarr, Dies |  Next: Russian Setbacks Alter Plans for Amateur Radio's ISS Debut |
By Henryk Kotowski, SM0JHF/K6JHF/SO5JHF
January 19, 2000
Sweden's Kvarnbergets Amateur Radio Club's SK0UX is expanding its capabilities--just in time for the 2000 ARRL International DX Contest. Here's a look.
The SK0UX "shack" on Kvarnberget--a hilltop in Vallentuna, some 30 km north of Stockholm. [All photos by the author] |
The most active club in the Stockholm area has recently added a few new antennas to its farm. Designed and constructed by Waldemar, SM0TQX, with a little help from a few club members, huge cubical quads have changed the landscape of the hill where the club station dwells.
The "monster" 20-meter cubical quad array. |
The most recent addition, raised last November 11, is a monster 14- MHz array. Its boom, of four-inch aluminum alloy tubing, is 19 meters (60 feet), and there are six-elements on it. Radiators are made of solid copper AWG 8 wire, while tapered spreaders are of heavy duty fiberglass poles. This antenna is so heavy that four men could not place it on the auxiliary 12-foot mast during construction. We could not find a rotator that would handle this giant, so--until springtime, at least--this antenna is fixed in one direction: North America. We plan to give it an exhaustive trial during the coming ARRL DX contests.
A couple of weeks earlier, two other antennas were placed on their towers. One was a 28 MHz 8-element cubical quad; the other was a 21 MHz 7-element cubical quad. All our quad antennas are designed and constructed by Waldemar, SM0TQX, who, by the way, built the large antennas at the SP5PWK club station in Warsaw, Poland, in the 1970s.
The SK0UX club shack was built some 40 years ago and housed a microwave propagation research station. Sometime in the mid-1980s it was put at the disposal of a local radio club. In 1993, the present club was founded and took over the grounds and the SK0UX call sign.
The club has approximately 35 members today, but hundreds of Stockholm province hams are allowed to use the facilities. We hope that our members' enthusiasm is contagious, and that they'll take advantage of the offer.
You can e-mail the club at sk0ux@sk7do.te.hik.se or visit our Web home page at http://sk7do.te.hik.se/clubs/sk0ux/. The Webmaster is Christer, SM0NCL.
Visitors and new members are cordially welcome. You can contact El Presidente himself, Carlos Rodriquez, SM0KCO, sm0kco@yahoo.com or the author, at sm0jhf@arrl.net or telephone +46 707 561493.
Otherwise, see you in the pile-up!
The updated SK0UX antenna farm. From left to right: 110-foot tower with 7 MHz, 2--element cubical quad, 2.3 GHz and 5.7 GHz beacons, and 80/75 meter slopers; 72-foot tower with 14 MHz 6--element cubical quad; 66-foot tower with 14-30 MHz LPDA and a fixed 14 MHz 5--element Yagi; 66-foot tower with 21 MHz 7--element cubical quad; 40-foot mast with stacked arrays for 144 MHz and 432 MHz tropo; 26-foot mast with microwave antennas: 1.3 GHz, 2.3 GHz, 10 GHz; 60-foot tower with 28 MHz 8--element cubical quad; 40-foot mast with 21 MHz 4--element Yagi and 50 MHz 6--element Yagi; 26-foot mast with a 3--element 3 band Fritzel Yagi with 7 MHz extension (this mast will host a large 144 MHz EME array). |
Editor's note: Henryk Kotowski is a native of Poland. Originally licensed in 1960 as SP5AHL, he left Poland in 1975 and was licensed as SM5JHF three years later. He also holds a US Amateur Extra class license, K6JHF, and Polish visitor license SO5JHF. He's been very active from the SK0UX club station near Stockholm during the past 11 years. His interests include HF CW & SSB. He enjoys contesting, working DX, and visiting DX operators. He is an ARRL member. Readers may contact him at sm0jhf@arrl.net.
| Previous: Spread Spectrum Inventor, Actress Hedy Lamarr, Dies | Next: Russian Setbacks Alter Plans for Amateur Radio's ISS Debut |
