Beverage Construction Photos

Building Beverage antennas at PJ2T is an incredible challenge because of the thorny desert vegetation (below). Cactus and thorn bushes (wabi) are everywhere, and the cactus thorns have reverse barbs that rip out a nice chunk of flesh when you pull them out of your skin. They go through most kinds of clothes and the bottoms of most shoes. The Europe Beverage was a particular challenge to build because it had to go in high terrain that was completely overrun with vegetation, and it required some considerable rock-climbing up sheer rock faces. There has probably never been a human being in the area where the Europe Beverage is installed. W0CG put in the Europe Beverage during the period 21-25 February 2003, wearing protective clothes, heavy boots, and armed with brush-cutting loppers. The Beverage path was cleared at a rate of about 20 feet/hour. The balance of the feedline for this Beverage was buried by Geoff in late March.


13 February 2003: W0NB and WA9S installing the feed line, in conduit, from the US/JA Beverage feed point toward the QTH. The cable is Davis RF direct-burial RG-213	We used a combination of a PhD, six Masters degrees, seven Bachelors degrees, three licensed PEs, and one certified gifted ed teacher to dig this ditch. And it STILL ain't straight. This was a day prior to ARRL CW DX 2003.

This is the feedpoint of the 650 foot US/JA Beverage at PJ2T, remoted 150 feet from the station to minimize noise pickup on the advice of W8UVZ, K8GG, and KD9SV. Note the buried RG-213 Bury-Flex cable. (This installation has been waterproofed since this photo was taken, using K3LR's techniques.)	Here's the continuation of the feedline for the US/JA Beverage, inside the wall at PJ2T and approaching the shack.

Almost to the shack. This is hard work in the heat.	Look hard and you will see the ditch that we just covered. The US/JA Beverage feedpoint is in the distance.

24 February 2003: After two long hard days of chopping brush, climbing up rock faces, and beating down cactus plants, W0CG finally managed to complete the process of stringing the 1000 foot Europe Beverage. This job took him into a high, deep valley north of the PJ2T QTH where it is almost certain that no human has ever trod. The vegetation makes it impossible to trek around up here -- you can see his choppers, heavy gloves, and long sleeves and long pants -- not fun when it is 90 degrees and humid. Here, he set up the camera to take a self-portrait before tackling the job of terminating this far end of the Beverage to Europe.	Some of the tools hauled into the wilderness to do this job -- you can see the still-coiled crows foot wires coming off the tree that was used to end the Beverage.

This black glob contains the 470 ohm resistor, connections to the Beverage itself and to the crow's foot wires, and a whole lot of duct seal and a fiberglass stiffener. The whole assembly is tie-wrapped to a tree, and then taped to protect the tie wraps from UV. We don't want to have to go back up here to maintain this thing for YEARS. You can see the crow's foot wires running outward in the brush.	Look closely -- in the center of the photo is the tree where the 1000 foot Europe Beverage ends. The termination is complete and Geoff is ready to trek back toward the feedpoint.

The Europe Beverage from the termination, looking back toward the feedpoint.	Looking Toward Europe: This ridgetop is about 600 feet from the feedpoint of the Beverage. The termination in the preceding photos is 400 feet away in the direction the camera is looking, in the densely vegetated valley in the foreground. Nice QUIET place for a receiving antenna. W0CG is the only PJ2T operator who has ever seen this scene, because it took two full days of weed-hacking and a lot of rock climbing to get to this point.

About 150 feet of the Europe Beverage's trek takes it across a very high, relatively flat forested area. There are actually four different microclimates along the Beverage's route, and this one is fascinating because of the orchids and other bromeliads living on the desert vegetation. Note the bromeliad parasites on this branch that supports the antenna.	An orchid on the floor of the plateau below the Beverage's route. This should NOT be here in this severe desert climate!