Writen for May , 2002 issure of CQ VHF Magazine By Rod Blacksome KØDAS  

On May,16 1979 just after working the last station on 2 meters for WAS #9 he started picking up parts for the new project.(The new dish) In the spring of 1980, amid the lush corn fields of Iowa, there arose a magnificent 42-foot parabolic dish antenna. This gigantic antenna was the product of my friend's, Ken Kucera - KAØY's design and construction skills. The 42-foot dish was entirely homebrew and fully steerable using a Navy surplus 5-inch gun mount tipping the scales at a hefty 10-tons! I reported the construction details in the May 1982 issue of QST. An aerial view of Ken's dish graced the cover of that issue. Ken's objective was to have a dish large enough to work EME on frequencies as low as 2 meters. The dish was a success from the start, netting many "firsts" - including the first 2-way SSB EME QSO on 220 MHz. By 1986 Ken had worked all 50 states on 432 MHz (#9). The following year he completed WAS on 220 MHz (#10). But in 1988, Ken moved into town and his son lived on the farm resulting in the KA0Y EME signal falling silent from the big dish. They sold the farm in 1994. Four years later, Ken bought the dish back from the new owner of the farm. He finally owned it again - now to move the monster antenna. Early on a quiet Sunday morning in September of 1998, he and a crew of helpers loaded the huge dish on a farm trailer and very carefully towed it through the Iowa countryside to his QTH in the town of Riverside, Iowa. (You Star Trek fans will recall that Riverside, Iowa is the future birthplace of Captain Kirk.) The dish literally occupied the entire width of the road and hung over the ditches on either side. It survived several scrapes with trees and road signs to finally arrive in Ken's yard. It was an immediate small-town sensation as wide-eyed kids, barking dogs, and curious neighbors gathered to watch the spectacle move down main street and into Ken's front yard. The neighbors, though Star Trek fans, were less than enthusiastic with the prospects of seeing this 42-foot monster antenna in their town. After all, the model of the Star Ship Enterprise in the Riverside city park is only 20-feet long. There were no town ordinances against the antenna, but the anti-antenna sentiment built up until it was just a matter of time. Ken was more interested in getting back on EME than fussing with his neighbors, so in December 1999, he bought a small acreage back out in the country. Once again the dish was readied for another road trip, but this time transport was held up for several months due to bridge repairs on the only road that could safely accommodate the antenna. Like the Phoenix rising from its' ashes, twenty years after its birth, the rebuilding of the EME antenna was finally begun in the spring of 2000.

Several improvements were incorporated this time - the most noteworthy was expansion of the dish diameter to a full 50-feet! A tilt-able tripod feed system with fiberglass poles was built to allow quick feed-point antenna changes from the ground. The gun mount was outfitted with new 3/4 hp dc servo motors and interfaced to computer control of azimuth and elevation. Automatic tracking of the moon with a pointing accuracy of 0.2-degrees was achieved. The dish surface was covered with new 1/4-inch wire mesh - sufficient for operation up to 1296 MHz. The T/R relay and low noise pre-amps are located at the feed-point, thus requiring two feed lines between the ham shack and the antenna. Andrews 1 5/8-in. foam heliax is used for the transmit line and 7/8-in. foam heliax for the receive line.

The new dish became operational in the fall of 2000 just in time for the EME contest when Ken worked 95 stations - all on 432 MHz.

Just before Christmas, the station was brought up on 1296 MHz for the first time. As of January 31, 2003, Ken has completed 262 QSOs in 23 countries and 20 states on 1296 MHz EME - all with the aid of his faithful "K9" assistant. Today it is fashionable to look at the "value added" aspect of any operation or process. So what might we consider "value added" from this antenna odyssey? I submit the following for your consideration:

1. It serves as a bench-mark for other hams who dream of big antennas and wonder if they could ever build one. The answer from Ken is, of course, "yes! If I can do it, so can you".
2. Ken's "big gun" EME station, provides a means for low power, small antenna stations to successfully make EME contacts thus infecting a new generation of hams with the "EME bug".
3. Unless your antenna project is bigger or crazier than this one, you can use this article to soften the xyl's resistance to almost any project you have in mind. Point out the patient understanding that Ken's wife must have in order to endure relocation simply because of antenna issues.