PSRG-FUN Blog: John "Long White Whiskers" [KE7LWW] -- SK (April 10, 2015)

John [KE7LWW], we will miss you.

You always had great stories from your QTH in Sherwood Forest (Bellevue)!

John got his General ticket in Spring 2013,

so he could chase DX on the Terminator

from the conduit antenna on his house's roof ridge.
-- John became a Silent Key (SK) last Friday, April 10, 2015 --
(Thanks Zac [K7ZAC] for the update)

FROM John's QRZ.com page:

Station KE7LWW is comprised of:

Ten-Tec model 708A desktop mic
Ten-Tec model 715 RF Speech Processor
Ten-Tec model 599AT Eagle Transceiver w/auto tuner, noise blanker, 1.8, 2.4, and 15 kHz filters
Ameritron AL-811H amplifier
MFJ-962D Versatuner III tuner
Vertizontal 20-10 antenna

Vertizontal 20-10 antenna
Station KE7LWW transmits out of criss-crossed coax cable as shown below. Each of the two elements is three-eighths wave centered on 14.268 Mhz. The two pieces are crossed at the one-third point (1/8th wave). The coax shielding is utilized as the radiating element in the criss-crossed members. The coax center wire is NOT in direct electrical contact with the coax shielding, nor is it fed a signal from the feed-line. Period. So the Ohm rating of the antenna coax is not important at all, and I prefer 75 Ohm TV stuff because of it's non-braided shielding and it's free - abandoned and stapled to walls everywhere! The feed-line is 50 Ohm, the best quality always preferred. I prently use a "very dirty" balun: five loops of coax about 5-1/4" in diameter per loop (see photo below...).
Don't use published coax velocity factors in the criss-crossed element design... remember: only the coax exterior shielding is fed the signal! I use 95% efficiency for the elements, although the efficiency is probably higher. This antenna is 1:1 across 20 meters and tunes-up very well on 17, 15, 12, and 10.