HOA Vertical Antenna for the low bands including 60M, the DX Flagpole works the world! 

"The other night I was on 60 and I felt like the old days, running JA’s from Chicago in the CQWW CW with a 4-1000 to a Quad at 80’" says one very happy Greyline customer.

Imagine that, the 20' DX Flagpole in an HOA inspiring memories of the "old days, running JA's" with a Quad at 80 feet in the CQWW CW contest! We are proud to play a small role in the DX adventures of so many... Thank you!  - Greyline

Summary: Below is the ongoing updated adventures of Bill in Florida. He goes from Loop in the Attic to a Flagpole and is now working 80M into VU (India!) and Hawaii... He also describes his working conditions (station setup).

He adds...

"Since I added the Greyline DX Flagpole vertical antenna, I have added over 200 additions to my DXCC Challenge account. I am now right at 900 and hope to complete it in the next few months."

"Got Mauritania, Dodecanese, Israel, and Cypress on 80 meters and just sent my Pay Pal bucks to K9CT for 4 bands and 3 modes for VP6R on Pitcairn. First Pitcairn since 10 Meter AM contact in the 1960s."

Ham Radio is fun again with Real DX results on 160-6M. 

Read more from Bill as he explains his DX adventures from his HOA home.

Bill writes:

I was able to get a decent match from 60 meters to 6 meters and work a number of stations satisfactorily on all the bands. I have been building my state totals on 10, 12 and 15 meters, have reached 50 on 40 and 17 meters and only need MT and HI on 30 meters to make WAS.

I have also made DXCC on 40 meters, and 17 meters. My last challenge is DXCC on 12 meters where I am around 60 countries. When I put up the DX Flagpole antenna I was only at 48 countries on 40 meters, about 50 on 30 and 17 meters and nowhere on 12 meters.   

Since I added the Greyline DX Flagpole vertical antenna, I have added over 200 additions to my DXCC Challenge account. I am now right at 900 and hope to complete it in the next few months.  

I do need to talk about what I consider “Magic Band.”  That is 60 meters on 5.357 Mhz.  We are limited to a max of 100 watts ERP.  The other night I was on 60 and I felt like the old days, running JA’s from Chicago in the CQWW CW with a 4-1000 to a Quad at 80’.  I must have made 10 or 15 contacts in a 15-minute period.  I would finish one and another guy would be calling me.  Since activity is minimal on that band a new guy showing up is very attractive.  Good reports and I found that the 20’ flagpole easily loads up with either the MFJ autotuner or the Heathkit at the station location. 

I still may consider the additional 4’ add-on to the flagpole. It certainly shouldn’t hurt the 80-meter performance.

November 2021 Update:

Jon, we first corresponded in December of 2018 when I decided to purchase a 20 Flagpole Antenna.  Due to stealth issues with a large remote tuner I was forced to use a tuner inside the shack behind about 40’ of LMR-400. It is an old Heathkit SA2060 which is built like a tank and will load up a paper clip on almost any band.  I had been using an MFJ magnetic loop in the garage attic with it’s 100 watt power limit and it only worked from 30 meters up to 10 meters. FT-8 was good and I managed to work my share of DX and individual states on 30, 20 and 17 meters.  Due to the sunspot cycle 15, 12, 10, 6 meters were a lost cause.  Then your flagpole came along.  I managed to work a bunch of stations on 40 meters and even 60 meters, even with the power restriction. 80 meters was matchable, but obviously not much power was going into the ether even at 5 to 600 watts from my AL80B.

Now, when I started with the flagpole in the late winter of 2019 my DXCC Challenge number stood at under 500 and I was starting from scratch on 80, 40, 15, 12 and 10 for Worked All States.  I really focused on DX to start and by March of 2020 I finally made my DXCC Challenge.  I currently stand around 1,225 and counting. Yesterday for some reason I woke up early, around 05:00 local time.  Made some coffee and tuned up on 80 meter FT8.  Within a couple of minutes I was working W4JTT near Honolulu for my final state on 5 Band WAS with endorsements for 30, 17 and 12 meters, 8 band for real and mostly all since the flagpole antenna went in. I had emailed Dave to be sure he was going to put the contact into LOTW and his response was interesting and thought you might be interested:

--

 I am so glad that we were able to make contact on 80 meters last night!  You had a very nice signal out here at -13 and were clearly visible on the spectrum display.  

 Very good on the AL-80B -- I used to have one and made thousands of contacts with it, but a few years ago I got good deal on an ALS-1300, which doesn't heat up the little room I am in quite so much.  I also have mine set at about 400W and have been successful with my dipole on 80.

  You should be proud of your accomplishments in the HOA antenna world, I feel your pain.  You were about 6bb above the average signals I was working last night so your setup is definitely effective at distances of 5,000 miles.

 --

2022 STATION DESIGN (update)

In any event my station is as follows:
 
IC-7610 Transceiver
Ameritron AL80B Amplifier
20’ Flagpole Antennas Vertical
Heathkit SA-2060 tuner
 
Coax is LMR-400, about a 20’ run from the antenna to the house.
           then Double female UHF connector and a 15’ run inside the
           house to the antenna tuner. There is also a Palomar
           coax Common Mode Choke and a string of 6 Snap on Ferrites on the
           coax just prior to the house entrance. There is a gas discharge coaxial
lightning protection unit that runs between the choke and the entrance
connector.  It is at that point where the connection to a
           ground rod is provided. This rod is bonded back to the service entrance
           ground rod about 35 feet away. There is also
           a box containing a 30 amp open frame relay which is
           energized when the 13.8 volt station low voltage power
           is activated.  When the relay is not energized the feedline
           is grounded to the station ground buss which parallels the
           coax out to the entrance and is connected to the ground rod
           at that location.  There is no RF in the shack on any band.

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Are you on 60M? Do you have a similar story to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Ham Radio is fun again!