Just a heads up to all you Ham Radio guys out there, the Radio Australia transmitter site in Shepparton, Victoria, is in the process of being destroyed.
It is a very sad thing and I for one believe it a short sighted move, but besides all that, there is a once only chance for Hams to use the HF phased array antennas. Depending on the frequency, 14 to 20db gain.
I spent almost 20 years working there and am quite angered by the political decision to turn the millions of dollars of equipment into scrap metal.
Still, it is a done decision

I would encourage those of you who are hams to look into this event, either here in Oz, or elsewhere around the world to see how well the antennas work.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/search/radio+australia+shepparton/@-36.3614848,145.3769931,13.19z


With the kind permission of Broadcast Australia and many thanks to Rex VK3OF, there will be a Special Event Amateur Radio HF station set up at Radio Australia.
This special event will be held on Saturday 14th – Sunday 15th, of March 2020. Note: Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time. GMT +11:00
The event will be commemorated with a special QSL card.
Amateur radio operators will be invited to register to be on-site to participate in this special event, site restrictions limit us to no more than six on site at any one time, so there will be a roster, and reservations for specific time slots will be required.
Please note: This is not a tour of Radio Australia, this access is being provided just for operators of the special event station.
(And this is a free event.)
Registrations are now open.
For more info, https://ra.sadarc.org/#!/

 

I thought this worth posting as folks here may be interested in antenna design.
And to see what difference a bit of antenna gain can achieve.

 

Awesome...what was it like?

I'm thinking my 100watts would.be lost in the feedline.

I used to work at the 44khz Navy base in Canberra.. would have loved the same opportunity

 

It went extremely well! My 30W (or there abouts ) set put a great signal into USA, even with around 1KM of feed line.
The lines are balanced 4 wire 600lb copper if I remember correctly,
I must admit, at the end on the event, as the closing message went to air, Ray, VK3YNV found an on line recording of the Radio Australia tuning signal and played it from his phone.
That was something I used to hear many times a day when I worked there all those years ago. It did bring a tear to my eye.

Did you look at the SADARC forum?

I also posted stuff on QRZ.com A lot of it is just the same as elsewhere.
https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?th...uld-you-like-to-try-a-20db-hf-antanna.691991/

There are a few youtube videos of recording made at "the other end" so we got to see how it was received in USA for example.

 

I found a few videos...
This is a very good overview of the setup.

some more...
(Search for VI3RA)

moon bounce...

Here is the sign off....

 

While driving back on vacation I passed a once wonderful place of antennas we would get signals from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaggs_Island_Naval_Communication_Station
https://www.navycthistory.com/skaggsisland_introduction.html

 

One of the highlights of my HAM usage was contacting AUS from here in coastal GA on the 10M band with 100W CW on a retuned 3 element CB antenna. Strange thing was here it was a code frequency in the US and the HAM in AUS was using phone. Actually, contacted him twice over a few months' time. That's REAL DX for here in GA with AUS being on the "other" side of the world! I've got his QSL card somewhere around here in a box. Ought to put it up on the wall if I can find it. Before the advent of the Internet, that was quite a feat!