Oct 2, 2014

Lots of work... triband HF, 2m, 432, and 6m beams are up!!!

Well people said it couldn't be done...  yet here we are.

I now have a respectable station...

HF:

-Homebrew triband Vertical (built from an old Antron 99 CB antenna, some wire and a old coax)

-Wilson SY-33 3 element Triband beam
         -about 14.5 feet long boom
         -nearly 30 feet wide on each of the 3 elements
















For 6m or 50Mhz  I took some scrap aluminum and PVC, this allowed me to build a 2 element Moxon, around 5.5dbd of gain and 25 DB front to back ratio...  it's about twice the size a 6m square halo antenna...  I have worked stations over 1000 miles out on this antenna.  The best part is that the antenna has a 50 ohm feed point at resonance without using a matching device and weighs almost nothing with less than a 0.75 square foot wind load



For 144Mhz (weak signal, not FM repeater work)  JD (N0IRS) gave me a Cushcraft 11 element beam, it works great...  I have managed contact as far as 354 miles...  and normally see 80-100 miles













As for 432Mhz (70cm weak signal) I recently installed a M2 28 element yagi from W0HPY...  he works at Johnstone and when I came int othe store, I met him and he gave me a bunch of antenna parts, this yagi was in the bunch of parts...  the elements were bent and the boom was twisted and bent...   AD0HW (Lee)  and I fixed the boom and then I got the antenna on the air...





Also N0RIV and AD0HW came by to help my sure up the mounting system for the  VHF/UHF stack

All of these are double lagged into at least one stud, with 19 lag bolts, 4 u bolts and 1 hose clamp...  I dont think this antenna stack is going anywhere...





All together the project consisted of the following:

- 1 Hygain Ham IV rotator and controller  -  trade

- 1 older CDE HAM IV rotator and controller -  traded for (2) two 150 foot runs of RG6u with PL259 ends

- 120 feet of rotor control line, half of this was given to me by N0IRS, the other half traded for some HAM radio labor

- nearly 200 feet of LMR 400  , FREE some of it came from AD0HW, most of it came from N0IRS

- misc mounts for free from AD0HW

- Wilson SY33 triband beam, $150

- misc  hose clamps  $15???

- 65 feet of RG-214u (for the triband HF beam)

- 3 sticks of all thread, nuts, and washers  $10

- misc nuts and bolts, $10???

- Diawa CS-201 switch (with fancy gold N connectors)  random trade



While finishing up I managed to cut myself when a hose clamp snapped and blood was rushing out... by the time I got off the roof there was a trail of blood from the roof, to the back deck, to the breakfast nook, to the kitchen, I was a little worried at first...  but hey it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, then it's just awesome!!!






I want to thank everyone that helped make this happen

- N0IRS, thank you for all the help, and the donations to get me on the air (2m yagi antenna, feed line, etc)

- N0RIV, thanks for the help

- AD0HW, thanks for the feed line, and the Yeti

- W0HPY, thanks for the 'antenna parts', built 1 antenna and repaired another from them

-KA0REN, thanks for loaning my your MFJ-259B analyzer


- 73 to all, I hope to hear you on the air

KD0SRD, closing station for the night

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