During the ARRL 10-Meter Contest (December 14-15, 2002) I limited my antennas to a pair of aluminum painting easels, a pair of tape measures, a pair of metal folding chairs, and a dolly (for moving refrigerators, etc) sitting above some 1x1 inch chicken wire. The dolly was set up as a vertical antenna and the rest were set up as dipoles.
I made one or more DX contacts with each one of these strange antennas, and worked 5 of the 7 continents! I missed Antarctica and Australia. Of the DX I was able to reach, I was most impressed with Kyrgyzstan (ex2z), which is along the west border of China, and Cape Verde (d44td), which is a little island off the western coast of Africa.
The photo to the right shows the front of my house. You can see my 10-Meter vertical antenna, a Solarcon A-99 which works well, but I did not use it in the contest. If you look closely, just below the peak of the roof, and under the A-99, you can see a glimpse of the aluminum painting easels I used on Saturday. As you can see, it was a beautiful day, as was Sunday! It was nearly perfect weather for climbing on the roof every few hours to set up another strange antenna.
| Antenna | Continent | DX Stations |
| Easel Dipole | N. America | Alaska | Canada - AB, BC, NF, NB | Mexico |
| Tape Measure Dipole | N. America | Canada - AB, BC, Saskatchewan |
| Europe | Netherlands | |
| Germany | ||
| France | ||
| Asia | Kygyzstan | |
| Folding Chair Dipole | N. America | Canada - BC |
| Mexico | ||
| C. America | Costa Rica | |
| S. America | Brazil | |
| Africa | Cape Verde | |
| Dolly w/ Screen Vertical | N. America | Canada - BC |
| C. America | Aruba |
What prompted this endeavor?
Reading Kurt N. Sterba's three books "Aerials" (I, II, and III). These are great reading and filled with good information. They can be ordered from "World Radio" if you're interested (www.wr6wr.com- I get no kick-backs, just letting you know because I like them).
The following links describe each antenna set-up I used in the contest and includes images of the "antennas":
Our ham radio club (www.smarc.org) is hosting a Special Event Station, KØS, Kurt N. Sterba Strange Antenna Challenge, May 10-11, 2003 in Springfield, Missouri. We will be setting up a variety of "strange" antennas so our fellow hams may enjoy working them. Please follow the link for additional information.