Ham Claims New Tower Is Not Overcompensating

Richard Small, W0DIE, of Duluth, MN says his 100-ft tall Big Bertha tower is not overcompensation for other deficiencies, despite what neighbors and fellow hams claim. Small recently installed the heavy duty, freestanding radio tower as a belated fiftieth birthday present to himself, he claims, simply to improve his station's signal. Fellow hams in the area wonder why Small reqiures such a large tower to support a simple dual-band VHF/UHF vertical antenna. "Those Big Bertha's are capable of supporting multiple large HF beams with lots of windloading. That vertical is, what, maybe a half-square foot windload, if that," says neighbor and fellow ham, Al Knowing, K1DDG, "Plus, they ain't cheap." W0DIE maintains he simply wanted to improve his signal into the area repeaters. "Before putting 'ol Bertha up I could barely hit the machines in Hibbing. Now I can kerchunk repeaters as far away as Thunder Bay and on a good day even Milwaukee," claims Small. "I don't care what Richard says, I know why he really put that tower up," says Small's wife, Wanda, while gesturing with her pinky.