Two things: the first is that I failed to acknowledge Tim Duffy, K3LR, the head of DX Engineering, who cut us a break on the price of the new antenna. That pricing helped us get the antenna we now have.

The second is that my height estimate of the antenna was pretty rough, but I've learned that it's neither 150 ft or 200 ft: when the NWC was designed and built, OU didn't want to deal with FAA-mandated anticollision lighting. To avoid the requirement of installing and maintaining anticollision lighting, no part of the building can be 200 ft or more above ground. Thus, nothing on the building, including the very top of the mast on which the new antenna is mounted, is above 190 ft, comfortably below the 200 ft limit. That puts our antenna at about 185-186 ft or so, which is still taller than 99.99% of all the ham antennas out there.

I'll be getting some instrumentation up there in the near future to baseline the characteristics of the new antenna, so that we can detect any changes in the future.

As reminders, the club call for licensed non-students is WX5NWC. The club call for licensed students is W5TC. Now, go get on the air!

73,

Kim Elmore N5OP
OUARC Faculty Advisor

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Kim Elmore, Ph

Kim Elmore, Ph.D. (Adj. Assoc. Prof., OU School of Meteorology, CCM, PP SEL/MEL/Glider, UAS, N5OP, 2nd Class Radiotelegraph, GROL)

“The weather is never wrong.” – Pam Wilson