SORAK

There have been a number of antenna kits designed for easy portability and this may be one of the latest. During the Vietnam conflict antenna kits were developed for the VHF low band squad radios like the OE-303 half rhombic and for H.F. NVIS use like the AS-2259. The H.F. antenna kit for the GRC-19, the GRA-50, was also used. This SORAK antenna seems to combine both bands into a single antenna kit.

I had seen a web reference to a SORAK antenna and in that reference it talked about buried antennas. This antenna does not support any on the ground or buried configurations based on the manual fragment I have.

In all the SORAK configurations the near end of the antenna is connected to the radio using a BALUN (BNC 50:430 Ohm) and the far end(s) of the antenna wire(s) are terminated with 430 Ohms. This probably has been done to support the frequency hopping modes now used on both HF and VHF military radios.

It's interesting that the termination impedance is higher than the free space impedance of 377 Ohms (PI*120). If the antenna wire is long enough for a voltage maximum to appear then very little energy would be left that can get to the terminations.

Supported Radios

Antenna Configurations

There are two ways an H.F. radio can match into an antenna. One is when the antenna system is near 50 Ohms in impedance and the radio sends out the R.F. without using any antenna coupler. The other is when the antenna has a VSWR typically greater than 3 and the radio's internal antenna coupler is used to get a good match. When using the 50 Ohm radio output any reasonable length of coax can be used with only a slight penalty in coax loss. When using the radio's internal antenna coupler and coax between the radio and antenna degrades the ability of the coupler to match the antenna.

Since the SORAK BALUN is designed for a 430 Ohm load it appears as if the SORAK user is not supposed to use resonate antennas, only the wide band configurations shown in the manual. In all the configurations the near end of the antenna is connected to the radio using a BALUN and the far ends of the antenna wire(s) are terminated.

175 Foot Bent Longwire (Vertical Half Rhombic) 30 - 88 MHz

In this configuration the near end of the antenna wire is connected to the radio using the BALUN and the far end is terminated with 430 Ohms. This configuration is primarly intended for use in the VHF low band, very much like the OE-303.

117 Foot Sloping Dipole (234' total inverted "V") 2 - 10 MHz

SORAK 117 foot Sloping Dipole HF NVIS Antenna

This would almost be called an inverted "V" in ham radio literature. I say "almost" because in this case the antenna is not resonate and in this case the wire ends are terminated, whereas for a ham radio antenna the ends would be left open. Note that the common formula for calculating a wire dipole is total length (ft.) = 468 / Freq (MHz). Using this formula you would calculate that for 2 MHz the length should be 234 feet. Since the wire ends are terminated the length is note really critical except that it needs to be greater or equal to a half wavelength at the frequency of operation in order to get useful radiation.

At the lower H.F. frequencies the antenna height for 1/4 wave varies from 123' at 2 MHz to 8 feet at 30 MHz. So for the low H.F. frequencies that antenna is close to the ground and operating in the NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave) mode where the signal is sent almost straight up. This is similar to the AS-2259 except the SORAK mast is much taller and the wires are much longer.
In the 2 to 10 MHz range there's good radiation straight up, good for NVIS operation. Note the diagram in the manual says that the gain at 2 MHz is about -14 dB and at 10 MHz about -10 dB.

117 Foot Sloping Vee (2 ea 117' wires 45° included angle, Horizontal Half Rhombic) 4 - 12 MHz

The plan view of this antenna looks like a standard rhombic that has had the two far legs removed and the terminations added to the existing legs. Intended for use in the 4 to 12 MHz frequency range.

234 Foot Sloping Vee (2 ea 234' wires 45° included angle, Horizontal Half Rhombic) 8 - 24 MHz

The plan view of this antenna looks like a standard rhombic that has had the two far legs removed and the terminations added to the existing legs. Intended for use in the 8 to 24 MHz frequency range. Single bead on antenna wire.

468 Foot Bent Longwire (Vertical Half Rhombic) 8 - 20 MHz

This is what's more commonly called a Half Rhombic similar to the OE-303, but in this case made longer to work in the HF frequency range. The radio is connected to one end that's supported on a 6' mast using a 6' coax, the 22' mast is holding up the center and a termination is connected to the far end also supported by a 6' mast. This configuration should provide the longest range (1500 to 2500 miles) operation over the 2 to 20 MHz range. It's a directional antenna with the main lobe radiating off the antenna toward the termination.

In the 8 to 20 MHz H.F. frequency range the pattern is in the 10 to 20 degree elevation range, but at 30 MHz there are many many lobes in the 50 to 90 degree range where they are of no value. The peak gain may be as high as 8 dB.

Test Sets

TS-4350	The TS-4350 is a power meter that is used with a transmitter to measure forward and reverse power allowing determination of VSWR.
TS-4351	TS-4351 is a noise bridge that can be used to check antenna VSWR at the frequency set on the receiver
Off turns off the internal 9 volt battery. Pressing button on side turns off noise. Probably usable for HF and VHF low band. Mike Murphy is where I got this one.
Plomar Engineers used to make a "R-X Noise Bridge" that covers 1 to 100 MHz, but it's now obsolete. manual + added info at Bama, they show up on eBay. Wiki "Antanna Analyzer" is about the noise bridge.	Googling for "Antenna Noise Bridge" will bring up ready made units and kits. Far Circuits has the PCB for the QST Dec 1987 Noise Bridge for under $10. AEA - Autek Research MFJ Enterprises Palstar New Jersey QRP Club - Rainbow Antenna Analyzer

Manuals

Description

The Kit ws made by CAGE code 1L397 which is GKS Inc., 25670 1^st St., Westlake, OH 44145 - 1493.
Their CAGE listed phone number no longer is in service.

The SORAK is packaged in two field bags made of rip stop nylon. Velcro is used extensively and plastic snap ends on the straps.

Small Bag

The smaller one is a roll about 17" long and 8" in diameter weighing 14 pounds.
Marked: 80083-A3158103, MFR 1L397
Has 8 Velcro pockets:

2 each Anchor/Ground Rods
Guy Ropes Halyard Ass'y
RG-174 coax cables using BNCf connectors (much smaller and lighter than RG-58 coax)
6' Coax Cables 2 ea.
25' Coax Cables 2 ea.
40' Coax Cable 1 ea.
Balun
Wire Reels 2 ea.
There are beads to indicate how much wire has been unwound, and you need to pay attention to their order:
- 117' double bead
- 175' single bead
- 234' single bead
Guy Ropes 5 ea.
Pocket Label: Wattmeter, Return Loss Bridge, Terminations, Technical Manual, but only the 2 Terminations included.
Hammer
Guy Stakes 5 ea.
Spares Kit: 2 ea. 8 oz fishing weights, small "-" screwdriver, electrical tape, needle nose pliers, short length of antenna type wire, BNCf-BNCf (Barrel) adapter, 2 screws and flat washers, 74" & 184 cm cloth tape measure

Large Bag

The large bag is 5" by 8" and 30" long and weighs 9.5 pounds. It holds the extendable 22' mast and the two 6' extendable masts.

The two 6' masts have their 3 guys and stakes attached.

The 22' mast is 28¼" long when collapsed and the O.D. of the bottom tube is 3.84". The top mast is a rod 0.80" in diameter. All mast parts are made of what may be fiberglass reinforced plastic. The locking method between sections is similar to a bayonet connector. The 22" mast is designed to be erected by extending it straight up and only lifting the guy ropes and a halyard instead of the antenna wire. This way the weight being lifted is minimized. Once the mast is erect and guyed the halyard is used to raise the antenna.

Electrical

BALUN

The BALUN is matched to the 430 Ohm termination. More than 20 dB return loss from 2 to 76 Mhz when one of the 430 Ohm terminations is connected to the balun.

This explains why there is no mention of adjusting the antenna element lengths to get a resonate antenna. If that was done the antenna would look like 72 Ohms real at the BALUN terminals and would be a 6:1 mismatch.

Termination

Although it's 9 inches long the internal Carborundum Corp 430 Ohm resistor is about 4 inches long and maybe 5/16" diameter.

Operation

Broken 6' Mast Cap

One of the 6 foot masts has had it's cap decapitated. I don't know when this happened, but suspect that it was caused by the heavy 22 foot mast banging against the shaft part of the 6' mast while the 6' mast cap was on the ground or floor. Putting the light weight 6' masts right next to the heavy 22' mast in the same carry bag doesn't look like a good thing to to.

There's a hole in the cap and in the mast section that's a little under ½" in diameter so the fix is to use J-B Weld on a ½" wood dowel and epoxy them back toghther. The hole in the cap is a little more than ½" in deep.

You can see the 3 parachute guy lines looped through holes in the cap.

I think is was broken while in the carry bag. You could cause that type of failure by setting the mast on the ground and giving a karate chop to the mast just below the top cap. If the mast was extended and you did the same thing it would be much more difficult to break off the cap since the mast would tend to flex which it can't do when collapsed. When all three masts are in the carry bag and someone drops the bag or the bag is standing up and falls over the 22 foot mast would deliver exactly the type of blow that would decapitate the six foot mast cap.

On the photo at left I have added a mark showing about where the hollow part is located. It's just over an inch deep.

So the dowel needs to be about 1½" in long.

After the J-B Weld setup overnight the mast is probably stronger than a stock mast because of the reinforcing of the ½" dowel.

There probably is a way to make the mast carry bag more protective of the masts it's holding.