Force 12 NEWS 120102

New Sigma-40XK^{^©}

manually "transformed"

to operate on all bands, 40-30-20-17-15-12-10 meters.

CC & R Friendly^{^©}Antennas

New Sigma-5^{^©} , Sigma^{^©}-SV5, Sigma^{^©}-GT5 & Flag Pole Antennas

5 Band, Single Feedline XR-5

New Guy-Site^{^©}

A tool everyone needs!

Team Vertical

now holds all 6 CQWW QRP CW single band records

LPDA Antennas and

Sigma^{^©}Single Band Antennas

Single Sigma 80 Relays and Larger Coil Sigma 80's

Professional Flag Poles for Your Home

Now Advertised at www.eflagpole.net !

7 Band, Single Feedline XR-7

Now in production, this excellent antenna is an excellent answer for getting on 40-10 meters with an effecient antenna. Easy to use and set-up. It can also be set on any frequency between about 5 and 30 MHz for other uses, such as MARS. The Sigma-40XK^©can be used either vertically, or horizontally - close to the ground for NVIS.

A simple to use tool for everyone. No longer guess at the angles for guy lines. Perfect for Field Day, home use, portable and DXpedition.

Jamaica was hot and stormy with incredible QRN, but the team set 3 more CQWW QRP CW world records on 160, 80 and 20, plus almost doubling its own 40 meter record. The Team now holds all 6 world QRP records on 160-80-40-20-15-10. This is an awesome accomplishment and a first - it has never been done before. The antennas were all Force 12, who knows how to build performance products. The Team also operated 15 and 10 meters during the contest with excellent results, although conditions were not the best. Satellite and 6 meters were active every day and all the satellites were worked. The Team even worked hard at a 2 meter EME contact with W5UN, but only received parts of his transmissions using FS44. Congratulations to Team founders Kenny K2KW and Tom N6BT, Team members Fred KE7X, Walt N6XG, Larry W7CB, Tim W6NS, Neil W6FOG. For more information please take a look at www.k2kw.com and www.w6fog.com .

Flag Poles and Flag Pole Antennas- Force 12, Inc. follows the requests of customers.

In stock - Force 12 flag poles are constructed of 2" aluminum tubing and are UPS shippable. The standard size is 4-section, 4' each, for an installed height of 14 1/2' (18" in the ground). These flag poles are offered to groups and institutions as fund raisers. Please call for details.

For amateurs, there is a base insulator section available to enable using the flag pole as a vertical antenna. The flag pole vertical with add radials, base loading and match can be used on 20, 30 and 40 meters. The higher bands can be used with a tuner.

Customers have asked us for several years to offer a solution for restricted locations. We looked at all the antennas on the market and found nothing that performed even reasonably well. The first Force 12 product to address this situation was the ZR-3 for 20-15-10 meters. At only 6' tall, it proved itself immediately, but was costly to produce and difficult to assemble. The ZR design was produced for commercial customers for many years. We carefully tested more designs and slowly developed the Sigma^©series. Testing was done for some time, including converting our commercial customers to it, because of the simpler construction and equal performance to the ZR design. The first amateur band Sigma^© antenna is the Sigma-5^© that covers 20-17-15-12-10 meters, is only 9' tall, comes in 2' sections and weighs only7 pounds. The demand for the Sigma-5^© has been tremendous.

Continuing to address the needs, we have now finished the Sigma-SV5^© that has the same performance as the Sigma-5^©, but looks like a TV antenna and mast. It is only 11' 11" tall and is built heavier than the Sigma-5^© so it can be mounted to the chimney, or other location. Although not designed specifically as a TV antenna, the Sigma-SV5^© does receive TV signals on the same coax - just don't transmit at the same time!

At the Visalia, California DX Convention. some expressed interest in a heavy duty model of the Sigma-5^©. To provide this product, we simply removed the cosmetic TV elements on the Sigma-SV5^©to create the Sigma-GT5^©. As introduced at the Dayton Convention, this antenna is only 11' 11" tall and strong enough to hang small flower pots from the T-bars!

Force 12 flag poles and flag pole antennas are reaching out to those who have additional restrictions - or - simply want to be patriotic while having a good vertical antenna!

Ever wanted everything on one boom? Force 12's 18' boom, single feed line XR-5 was ideal for coverage on the upper 5 bands and the key was to have a two-band 80/40 element. It was a very difficult challenge. Based on the Sigma^© design for 80/75 meters, a 2 element 75 meter Yagi was used for several months this year. More testing was needed to switch the element to 40, with the result being the Sigma-84^©, an 80/75 & 40 meter dipole element. To do the 80/40 band selection and control, we used our long-term experience with the relay boxes used on Force 12 80 meter elements for the past 10 years without a failure. The 53' long Sigma-84^© has full coverage on 40 (VSWR <1.7:1) and 4 segments on 80/75 meters: 2 on phone and 2 on CW, with each segment being about 50 kHz wide. Efficiency on 80/75 is approximately 90% and on 40 it approaches a full size element at 98%.

The XR-7 boom is only 26' long. The Sigma-84^© is the first element and about 8' ahead of it is the XR-5. Only 2 feed lines are used. The relay box uses 4-conductor control cable.

Many customers asked about a relay box to switch the new Sigma 80 vertical dipoles between CW and Phone, like we have on the EF-180B and others. After a lot of work to determine the mounting structure, the system is now available. The original was built for the AirDux coil Sigma 80 and the new one is for larger coil Sigma 80's.

The Sigma 80 coils are now made like the large ones on the Sigma 40's. The coils are 3/8" tubing and a bit larger than 5" inside diameter. This was a little difficult, as a method for covering them needed to be devised. We finally located a source for 6" diameter styrene and caps, so they can now be fully enclosed. A related note is that I have been using a proto-type 2 element horizontal Sigma Yagi for several months and have left the coils uncovered to see how they do in the wind, rain and bird stuff. To date, there has been no noticeable shift in frequency when raining and no moving about in the high winds or with bird droppings. The covers are standard, but appear not to be all that necessary unless the environment is one of snow and ice. The decision will be left to the customer and the particular installation.

Force 12, Inc. is producing log periodic dipole arrays (LPDA). These follow classic LPDA design and are built with dual booms. The measured VSWR across the frequency ranges is <2:1. Presently being shipped to military installations and international organizations, these LPDA's are in two models:

The RK-7L is for 13-30 MHz and is a 20' boom with 7 elements. Weight is 54 pounds, 100 mph;

The RK-10L is for 10-30 MHz and is a 30' boom with 10 elements. Weight is about 120 pounds, 100 mph.

After an extensive development period spanning more than 5 years, the XR-5 has arrived. Using technology from both the C-series and the XR-series, the XR-5 could well be the ultimate in a 5 band Yagi. The boom length is only 18', there are 10 full size elements and the first time you rotate it, you will notice the tight pattern and experience excellent performance on all 5 bands. The feed system uses the patented Force 12 open sleeve and the XR-5 is standardly rated for 100 mph. See the web site for more detail.

New SIGMA© vertical dipole antennas are now available. These include single band models featuring no-tune installation for 6 meters, 10 meters, 11 meters (currently being sold commercially), 15 meters and 20 meters. All of these single band antennas have a 5KW minimum power rating. All SIGMA© antennas are balanced vertical dipoles, with no radials and simple installation. Available now.

The SIGMA-5© vertical is setting sales records. With its high performance and small size (2' sections, 7 pounds, pre-tuned and no tools for assembly), the Sigma-5© is the answer for limited space, portable and DXpedition. Even a QTH with space to put up larger antennas will find the Sigma-5© attractive. See this web site for details.

SIGMA-40© continues to fill another need for high performance verticals. Two models, the Sigma-40© (24') and Sigma-40XP© (16') meet every installation and DXpedition requirement.

SIGMA-80© is in production and has been shipping for 2 months. At 36' tall, it has an operating 2:1 VSWR bandwidth of 60 kHz. A relay box is now available to switch from phone to CW. Those who have listened to the Sigma-80© are impressed. With no radials and ground mounting, it is your answer to getting active on 80/75 with an excellent signal.


	Force 12 XR-7, World's First 80-10 Mtr Yagi