FEBRUARY METROCREST NVIS ANTENNA BUILDATHON



THANKS TO BUILDERS, ELMERS, and of course AE5BK, "THE ANTENNA MAN"
The buildathon was a big success. Way more people came than were expected. Thanks to the Elmers who contributed their skills to help put it on and the over 30 hams from 5 different clubs who built at least a portion of the antenna.

Robby Robson, WB5RVZ, videoed Bill's formal presentation on NVIS propagation and operation. We are converting that video to wmv to post here. He also took several hundred still photos of construction steps. We are organizing those so hams who could not attend can replicate the build.

Lastly, thanks to the Carrolton Public Library for providing us space. They did not complain that we soldered and did machining in their meeting room. (The manager seemed happlily surprised that we asked for the vaccuum to tidy up at the end.)

WHAT IS NVIS
From the ARRL, "Near Vertical Incidence Skywave, better known as NVIS, is a technique that allows you to use HF transceivers for highly reliable short-range communication."

ARRL North Texas Section, NVIS Briefing
Near Vertical Indicence Skywave Wiki
NVIS and Amateur Radio
More NVIS and Amateur Radio
NVIS Technical Explanation

THE ANTENNA WE BUILT
We built a 40M/80M NVIS dipole including emcomm deployable mast and supports. Some people also added the optional VHF/UHF colinear ground plane for a complete emergency package.

Diagram of the finished antenna (Dimensions have been added.)
Assembly Detail Drawings and Photos (Coming soon)
Bill of Materials
Guy Wire Details
Video of AE5BK's NVIS Tuturial (32Mb)
Video of Bill's Tips of NVIS Operation (9Mb)
Video of Assembling the Center Support (2.3M)
Video of Connecting the Antenna Radials (1.4M)

FOR FURTHER INFO
AE5BK - Bill "The Antenna Man" Kruger ae5bk@yahoo.com
W5SGV - russell.fish@venraytechnology.com