Setting up the antenna at Cocos Keeling
DXpedition to Cocos Keeling & Christmas Island


Sunday 27 August 2000, the ant setup, three fishing rods about 8M above ground
with 2 X 20M with open feederline the one in the centre is the
feedpoint.
You can see the left rod in the corner, the right one is a bit hiding
behind the bush, only a few iron sticks with a sledge hammer for the
fishing rods to hold up, an isolator in the top of the rods and 3mm nylon
The fishing rods break down in only 120 - 125 cm and I did not need
guys...
The trick is to get the wire in one straight line... I put Fritzel isolator with
a hole drilled in the centre on top of each fishing rod and a 4mm nylon
rope as end of the wire though another whole in the isolator.
So with the rope I managed to get the wire at the right position and
it is also a guy, I do only use guys when there is unbalance in the case
if the feedline comes from the middle rod I put a rope to guy it in the
other direction, as long as the rods not blow away with very strong
winds it will stay there without problems. The fishing rods suitable for
this job are carefully selected, I can't use the top section (it is very
fragile and thin). They are all different when you hold it in one hand
and horizontal, it must be "almost" horizontal then, if not it will not
hold the wire not enough and will move (swings) around to easy on the
top and even comes down a bit .... so the height is less than the length
of the rod... so there is a limit.... My fishing rods are 8M, without the
original top 7M. Most of the time you can put them a little higher as I
did with the iron sticks but it is difficult to extend it with another
6M or so, then you better put it up in a vertical way, section after
section and not horizontal because it is to heavy and to fragile...
I use a more or less thin wire as ant to get the weight to a minimum, I
did use it now like this since 1993 on most of the operations, the
damage on fishing rods was caused not by the wind but by me, you
can't step on a fishing rod! HI It is nice to have a setup as easy as
possible to save time... and in the case of very strong winds to let it
down for a while as on a few occasions: Isle of Man (EU) and Guernsey
(EU) Then it is also very nice when I have the mobile set up... to have
a go between...

This picture is looking west, the ant position here was indeed in one
straight line here you have plenty of room. I wish it was a bit closer to
the ocean but then I could not find a easy way to get the 40M wire ant
in one line... so I chooce this place, the wire is more or less free looking
to the west.
The feedpoint is in the middle. You can see the wire and the left
fishing rod, the right is difficult to see. The aluminium pole on the
right was only to get the open feedline 3M above ground from the
middle fishing rod, to avoid that people got problems or even a car,
but there was never a car there.
The pole was provided by Colin Freshwater, he brought me two but again I did
not use it to extended the Ant, it is to cumbersome... and I had to be careful with
my fishing rods, I did use them also on VK9XV...

To get a idea, from the top of the rod to the Aluminium pole I did use
24M length of open wire, from the aluminium pole to the operating
position I think 15 M or so.
It seemed that no one was be able to climb that palm ...
In Belize and Desroches, Seychelles I had the wire up in the palms at
12M high with the help of a climber! (See pictures on my Website S79GI
& V31GI Glovers Reef).
And no... the tower is too far away for my 70M feedline! :-)
It is a big
tower, it looks close by in the picture.

                                                              (© PA3GIO)


End isolator with nylon rope

The fishing rod attached to an iron stick

The feedpoint

 


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Last update: 2 December 2001