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 Paul Bittner WØAIH was featured in the
TCDXA December 2014 Newsletter
CLICK HERE to view the newsletter
(scroll down to page 15)
WØAIH
Contest Station
Welcome to the
farm, where the primary crop is big towers and antennas!
Overview:
"The Farm" as it is referred to by WØAIH regulars
is located on 120 acres of rolling farmland in West Central Wisconsin, just
southeast of Eau Claire. Most hams who have driven on I-94 between Chicago and
Minneapolis have seen the endless array of towers that can be seen on the hills
overlooking the interstate at mile marker 76.
Located on the site are more than 50 towers. About 25 towers or poles are used
as vertical radiators plus numerous telephone poles and other towers that are
used to support feed line, ends of wire antennas and what ever else needs to be
held in the air.
The main building, commonly referred to as the Chalet, is a building originally
used to house a broadcast station transmitter at a different antenna site. Currently it
houses five of the six HF operating positions along with 2 spotting positions.
The 20 meter position is located about 300 feet away in a small 6 by 8 building
known as the "Air Force Shack", because in a previous life it was a portable Air
Force communications shelter.
Here you will find both the 20 meter position and the 20 meter spotter.
In the case of a single-op or multi-single contest, most of the 20 meter antennas
can be rerouted to the main building. As you can see in the pictures there is
enough feed line running between the two building to reroute almost anything,
and this is also true of the rotor controls. Also the main building can be rearranged so
that all the operating controls are located on one side. Mostly the 15 meter and
40 meter positions are used for this.
The rest of the out buildings are used for storage of cable, antennas and parts
use to fabricate any of the special items uses in the construction of the site.
About the webmaster:
This site is maintained by Paul's grandson, Joseph Husby. Joseph works as a software engineer at Leidos
(in a division formerly part of Lockheed Martin)
developing the next generation air traffic control systems.
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