My Hy-Gain Hy Tower

Tom Lubbers K8TL

My Hy-Gain Hy Tower

This is the origional Hy-Tower manufactured by Hy-Gain. I purchased it in the mid 1960's and have installed it at 5 different locations. Each time I moved it ment getting a new set of mounting legs. I used it for all the 80/75 meter and 40 meter contacts to earn the first 5BDXCC from the zero call area.

At present I use it on 160, 80/75, 40 and 30 meters.

There are two ways to get the antenna on 160 meters. One is add a loading coil to the center conductor. The other is a trap and 105 feet of wire. With the loading coil the power is limited to 200 watts. This is not a conservitive rating they mean it! Running over 200 watts will melt the insulators at the top of the tower!

I have mounted a relay box at the base to select two taps on the loading coil (3.7 MHZ, 3.525 MHZ). The relays are controled from the shack. I recently had some realy strange reactions. The auto tuner would take off in the middle of a transmission. After much head scratching, using my meger if found 2 meg ohms of resistance between the antenna and ground. Yes! I disconnected the coax. Of course it was the third insulator that had the short. I replaced the insulators on the legs. The new insulators from MFJ HY-GAIN were not drilled for mounting on the legs.!!!! With the new insulators the SWR is still about 2:1. But it does stay tuned. This winter (06/07) I worked 5A4A and several JA's.


				*Tom Lubbers K8TL* *My Hy-Gain Hy Tower*



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		MY HY Tower



		This is the origional Hy-Tower manufactured by Hy-Gain. I purchased it in the mid 1960's and have installed it at 5 different locations. Each time I moved it ment getting a new set of mounting legs. I used it for all the 80/75 meter and 40 meter contacts to earn the first 5BDXCC from the zero call area. At present I use it on 160, 80/75, 40 and 30 meters. There are two ways to get the antenna on 160 meters. One is add a loading coil to the center conductor. The other is a trap and 105 feet of wire. With the loading coil the power is limited to 200 watts. This is not a conservitive rating they mean it! Running over 200 watts will melt the insulators at the top of the tower! I have mounted a relay box at the base to select two taps on the loading coil (3.7 MHZ, 3.525 MHZ). The relays are controled from the shack. I recently had some realy strange reactions. The auto tuner would take off in the middle of a transmission. After much head scratching, using my meger if found 2 meg ohms of resistance between the antenna and ground. Yes! I disconnected the coax. Of course it was the third insulator that had the short. I replaced the insulators on the legs. The new insulators from MFJ HY-GAIN were not drilled for mounting on the legs.!!!! With the new insulators the SWR is still about 2:1. But it does stay tuned. This winter (06/07) I worked 5A4A and several JA's.