Well the antenna is up! It actually went up on Christmas Eve with construction happening inside on the pieces and parts the week prior. I also watched many, many videos and read the instructions several times.
It’s been a really great experience so far. I had a couple of issues, but nothing that was the fault of the antenna.
For one, I cut the 17m element way too short. I’ll fix that in the Spring.
Also, it has come down a couple of times. The first time, one of my neighbors expressed their disdain for it by snipping the guy ropes. I think I know which one and well, I now have security cameras and a flood light installed.
I filed a police report about it and the officer was like, “what antenna”? Exactly. It’s not unsightly at all. Oh well. Report filed.
The second time it came down was major wind. I mean 45-50 mph wind! Before putting it back up, I took paracord and attached three more guy ropes to the next higher level disc. I don’t it’s going to move now.
Performance wise, I made my first contact on 20m with 20w on the Xiegu G90 to Cape Cod from Michigan. He said I was 59 and really good audio. I’ll take that as a success!
Since then, I picked up a new rig (blog post coming about it at some point) and can operate up to 100w now. The DX Commander is performing great for phone and FT8.
On phone, I’ve made contacts with Italy, Canada, and of course many US states. On FT8, I’ve worked Japan, Swaziland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and many, many more countries.
All in all, this is a killer antenna. Not at all hard to assemble and install. I’m thinking I’ll be picking up another one for portable operations in the year ahead.
73!