2004 KØS, Kurt N. Sterba Strange Antenna Challenge

UPDATED: June 4th, 2004

Hosted by Erik Weaver nØew and Dwayne Walker wb5plj,

Event Dates: May 29-31, 2004

    The second annual K0S Special Event has ended.

    There were literally hundreds of tornadoes across the United States during this weekend. I hope that none of you were using a strange antenna because a tornado had just blown your tower into the next county. On the other hand, that is exactly one of the real-world situations that shows the practical application of practicing these skills. Still, I hope that none of us have to deploy a strange antenna for this reason.

    We had over 50 QSO's, across 25 different states and Ontario, Canada from the K0S Special Event Station operating from Springfield, Missouri. We used five different strange antennas over the course of the weekend:

1. Chicken Wire Delta Loop (Bottom Fed)
2. Loadlock Dipole
3. Truck Dipole (Suburban and Blazer)
4. Loadlock Vertical
5. Chicken Wire Semi-Vertical

States Worked:    AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, NC, NEB, NM, NV, NY, MI, MO, TX, OR, PA, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY, and Ontario, Canada.

   
Here are a few additional areas of interest:

• KJ4RB's Shop Light Dipole
• Chart Comparisons: SWR, Resistance, Reactance
• Strange Antenna Connections
• Thoughts about next year!
• Miscellaneous

    The first year's special event has prompted a new and unanticipated direction. Namely, there are now other stations located throughout the state, and perhaps country, that wish to participate as a KØS satellite station. While this had not been anticipated, there is no reason other stations can not join us in the grand adventure! In fact, we'd enjoy having others playing with their own strange antennas!....

    73 ~ Erik n0ew