Tibor, HA7TM
Five years ago Tibor acquired a large flat meadow in the middle of a forest, east of Debrecen in Hungary. The location had been used by a DX chasing radio amateur and was approved as a good spot for HF antennas. However, geographical position is not optimal for world-wide contests. Deep inland location is never good, so antennas must be better. However, you can’t do very much about propagation. Tibor, HA7TM has probably the best antenna farm in Hungary, and it is still growing. I have visited this attractive country twice but have seen only two Amateur Radio stations, others did not respond to my enquiries.
Tibor, HA7TM lives near Budapest in a town called Erd. There he had a large antenna tower but not enough space to expand. In the new, eastern venue, he started off with four identical towers, free-standing and 35 meters in height. Later, a 45-meter tower was added and it carries a 3-element rotary OptiBeam antenna for 80/75 meters. The 40-meter antenna is a single 4-element Yagi, but for 20, 15 and 10 meter bands there are stacked arrays. All these antennas can be lowered for maintenance, thus risky climbing the tower is eliminated. Tibor is approaching 60 so I fully appreciate his attitude.
Having built an antenna farm like this, Tibor likes to share the goodies with other fanatics of HF radio contesting. His station is designed for multi-operator activities. Often it is the Multi/2 category since antennas are far enough from each other so it is possible to run two bands without much interaction.
There is a small group of operators who join Tibor in contests. Some of them come from Budapest, some others are local talent. HG7T is on the air in almost every contest. It is interesting to see the difference in contest results between stations in different locations, but in the same category. I refer to simple antennas of CR3L in Madeira and huge stacks of HG7T in Eastern Hungary.
Let the pictures talk. Each of them is worth 1000 words. My pictures are even more valuable.
If you can read this, you are in the right place.
Tibor, HA7TM with his 20-meter stack in the background.
It looks like a 50 MHz array, in the background a 7-over-7 for 28 MHz.
Tibor, HA7TM, right - Tibor, HA5BSW, left.
Oh gosh! - 7 rotators and one radio - Tibor, HA5BSW is confused.
The HG7T station is designed for 2 operators. Tibor, HA7TM at station 1.
Tibor, HA5BSW at station 2.
Legal power amplifiers and Tibor, HA7TM.
The usual wallpaper.
Hungarian-made amplifiers.
Right under the 144 MHz array and all other towers visible.
A general view of HG7T before the 80-meter Yagi was installed.
Stacks for 14, 21 and 28 MHz.
If you are overtaken by this car, you will know who is inside it.
All photographs and text
Henryk Kotowski, SM0JHF
2014 05 22