I have purchased a large farm property in a remote area in the western fjords
of Iceland called "Otradalur".
The QTH is 65 degrees 39 minutes 49.2 seconds North, 23 degrees 33 minutes,
58.8 West (in decimal 65.66367, -23.56633)
The Locator is HP85FP
I have built three Rhombic antennas in the directions of JA, EU and the US.
from QST, September 1942:
Book review of "Rhombic Antenna Design" by A. E. Harper.
"...Obviously useful for engineers engaged in the design of communications
circuits, this book also should be valuable to the amateur with engineering
background in that happy day when rhombics again can get to work pushing ham
signals to the far corners of the earth"
All three Rhombics are a three wire design, which reduces precipitation static
by 9 dB according to Harper.
The total amount of wire in my antenna system is close to 60,000 feet.
I feed the Rhombics with 600 ohm open wire feeders, with 1/2" Heliax going
underground to the shack through 12:1 Balun transformers from DXEngineering.
I terminate the Rhombics with a lossy feedline made of stainless steel wire
shorted at the end.
I feed the three Rhombics into a power combiner (WX0B StackMatch) this enables
me to switch instantly between antennas and also transmit and receive on any
combination of the three antennas simultaneously.
I use a Yaesu FT1000MP Mark V into an Emtron DX-3 Linear Amplifier at 1KW and a
Yaesu FT1000MP Mark V Field into an Emtron DX-2SP Linear Amplifier at 1KW.
UPDATE: 03 October 2006: I have installed direction switching on the big USA
rhombic, effectively giving me 5 Rhombic directions.
UPDATE: May 2007: I have built a lower rhombic beneath the large USA rhombic.
This new antenna may be fed in phase with the upper one towards the US or used
separately.
UPDATE: September 2008: Two more rhombics have been built towards SEA and AF.
Baluns have been upgraded to a 50KW power rating.
73
Thor, TF4M
