20m 30m 40m Tri-Band Ground Plane, chasing CW DX

I designed and put up this new antenna a few weeks ago. The 80/40m vertical came crashing down in some high wind and all the ground radials needed to be rolled up for spring anyway. I have always wanted to have a decent vertical antenna for 30m so this provided an opportunity to do that while still having a decent 40m radiator as well. Since it was not much more difficult to add another band, 20m was built into it as well. Take a look at the video to see the construction details.

It performs just as any other ground plane. The assembly hangs from a 60' tree branch and the feed point is about 20' off the ground. So far I have worked half way around the world with it on 30m.

It has been quite a while since my last post about the cw key. I have been putting it to use since then and about 2/3 of my DX contacts are now on CW. I do not have the guts to ragchew on CW as of yet though. Fast paced pileups and contest is where I mostly use that mode for now.

73, AB8XX

P3 CW Touchkey

I have had this key a while and thought I would show it off. It is a "no moving parts" electronic iambic key that is touch sensitive and can be found at http://www.cwtouchkeyer.com/HOME.htm. Mine is just the P3 kit and made my own key into a small project box with an internal battery. A switch on the back allows you to select battery or external power pole. The paddles were fabricated out of some 0.032" aluminum I had. It works pretty good. Only problem is I am working on improving my CW skills and am afraid to use it on the air lol! 73, AB8XX