A month ago during the 2011 CQ Worldwide Phone contest I lost my roof-top hexbeam to wind. Areas around me would not only suffer damage from the wind but also record snowfalls. I got off lucky, altough my hexbeam did not. Also to note, this was a homebrew antenna and not one commercially made. The hex is an excellent design and definately gets the job done, so no complaints here.

With that out of the way, I was on a search for some aluminum and recently encountered a Hy-Gain Explorer 14 (EXP-14) that was in the attic of a local ham. I knew nothing of this Hy-Gain model, but the specs seemed to be right in line of what I was looking to accomplish. The price was right and it was in excellent condition. In speaking with the seller, the beam used to belong to a local club who unfortunately lost access to put up towers for field day and this beam was one of the casualties.

The Hy-Gain EXP-14 has a unique feed point (as they even state in the manual) with parasitic driven elements on 10m. It weighs approximately 45lbs, 14ft boom with a 17ft turning radius, perfect for my rooftop mount.

View at Picasa 27-Nov-2011 11:25, Apple iPhone 4, 2.8, 3.85mm, ISO 80

I had to beam built, tuned and installed in what seemed to be record time, only taking 3 1/2 hours. Part of that time included running out to Home Depot for a 12″ mast (above the rotor) and prepping the coax with ring terminals.

Once the beam was up, I could hear a drastic difference compared to my temporary bob-tail curtain on 20m. The first stations I heard were from India and Oman. Keep in mind, all of this was going on during the CQ Worldwide CW contest that I unfortunately could not commit a serious amount of time in due to the holiday, but ended up being a good time to test the new antenna and tweak the station.

The antenna is only sitting about 25ft off the ground, 6ft from rooftop. I was concerned with takeoff angle with the antenna being so close to the ground, but the fact that I was able to work into the Middle East, India and Asiatic Russia all while barefoot, says something.

In the photo, it may look like the antenna is mounted to the chimney, which it is not. The mount is a modified non-penetrating roof mount for DirecTV-type satellite dishes with 8 low-profile concrete blocks acting as ballast. The lower mast is guyed to the plate that holds the blocks. The mast is then guyed to the 4 corners of the house and attached just below the rotor.

On Monday a number of us from DLARC (Delaware-Lehigh Amateur Radio Club) took a field trip to the ARRL Headquarters in Newington, CT and also work the W1AW station.

During the 4 hour trip, I worked a number of DX stations on 17 and 20m including Russia and Belgium. Having HF in the car definitely makes the time go quick, but logging becomes the difficult and hazardous part.

Once on-site, our tour guide took us around league headquarters where we visited the Logbook of the world (LoTW) and certificate department as well as Product Test Lab, Marketing & Advertising, and VEC departments. While there Laurie (KB3SIK) was able to find out the status to her recent upgrade, which happened to arrive in the mail that day. In the outgoing QSL card bureau, we found cards destined for NE3F, the local contest station in Reading, PA, which I found rather funny.

We also had a tour of the ARRL employee station, W1HQ which had a decent amount of gear including a SteppIR beam and 6 meter King Conversion amplifier. I’ll be adding W1HQ to my rare DX list.

It was nice to be put faces and names to the ARRL and see what they do from their perspective. They do alot with what they have and make use of every piece of equipment they have; Something quite apparent in the Lab and Art departments.

View at Picasa ARRL, Newington, CT11-Apr-2011 16:17, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa ARRL League Headquarters, Newington, CT.11-Apr-2011 11:13, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa Cubesat11-Apr-2011 11:57, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 87	View at Picasa W1HQ Employee station.11-Apr-2011 12:12, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 102	View at Picasa W1HQ Employee station.11-Apr-2011 12:12, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 181	View at Picasa W1HQ Employee station.11-Apr-2011 12:11, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 79
View at Picasa W1HQ Employee station.11-Apr-2011 12:11, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 179	View at Picasa W1HQ Employee station.11-Apr-2011 12:11, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 336	View at Picasa Radio under test11-Apr-2011 12:26, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 420	View at Picasa Radio under test11-Apr-2011 12:14, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa Outgoing QSL Cards11-Apr-2011 12:52, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 115	View at Picasa Outgoing QSL Cards11-Apr-2011 12:52, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 125
View at Picasa APRS Beacon outside W1AW11-Apr-2011 16:15, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa ARRL Benches and memorandum bricks11-Apr-2011 16:12, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa ARRL Memorandum bricks11-Apr-2011 16:12, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa ARRL Memorandum bricks11-Apr-2011 16:12, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 50

After lunch at a local pizza place, we put in some operating time at W1AW, their visitor operator station. W1AW is also the station that provides the on-air ARRL bulletins as well as qualifying Morse code runs. I ended up running their Yaesu FTDX-9000D on 15m for a bit. The station has alot of different gear and operates a number of modes.

Next »

View at Picasa W1AW – Amateur Radio Station11-Apr-2011 16:13, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, ISO 50	View at Picasa W1AW Beam Antennas11-Apr-2011 16:13, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, ISO 50	View at Picasa W1AW Beam Antennas11-Apr-2011 16:13, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, ISO 50	View at Picasa KB3SIK (Laurie) at W1AW11-Apr-2011 11:11, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa W1AW HF Beams11-Apr-2011 11:11, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, ISO 50	View at Picasa W1AW – Oscar Satellite Antennas11-Apr-2011 11:12, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, ISO 50
View at Picasa W1AW – Oscar Satellite antenna11-Apr-2011 11:12, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, ISO 50	View at Picasa N3QO, Jeff and KB3SIK, Laurie11-Apr-2011 16:07, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa K3GMT (Dave) working 20m and N3OW (Jay) working 15m11-Apr-2011 14:43, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 128	View at Picasa K3GMT (Dave) working 20m and N3OW (Jay) working 15m11-Apr-2011 14:45, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 341	View at Picasa K3GMT (Dave) working 20m and N3OW (Jay) working 15m11-Apr-2011 14:43, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 88	View at Picasa W1AW – ARRL Station11-Apr-2011 15:53, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 163
View at Picasa W1AW Bulletin Service radios – Icom 756 ProIII with PW1 Amplifier.11-Apr-2011 15:50, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa W1AW Bulletin Service radios11-Apr-2011 15:50, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa W1AW Bulletin Service radio11-Apr-2011 15:50, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa W1AW Bulletin Service – Antenna Patches11-Apr-2011 14:54, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa W1AW Bulletin Service radios11-Apr-2011 14:54, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa KU3X, Barry and W3CE, Al11-Apr-2011 15:50, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 76

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View at Picasa Vintage station – Viking Valiant11-Apr-2011 14:51, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 126

View at Picasa Vintage Station – National11-Apr-2011 14:51, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 73

The remainder of the photos and video can be found here.

Another Timonium hamfest has come and gone.
Buyer turnout seemed pretty good, vendor turnout was slightly thinner than last year, although there seems to have been more tailgating than years past. Most likely due to better weather. I didn’t see too many capital expenses being made although I heard someone talking on the local repeater net saying he sold an entire silent key’s vintage Collins station. Laurie got a chance to use her new HT, which I was sure she really enjoyed keeping up with everyone. No large purchases this year, simple odds and ends and new antennas for our HT’s, but we got a chance to meet up with the 1900 guys from as far out as Pittsburgh and South NJ. Overall another successful hamfest! Can’t wait till next year!

View at Picasa The 1900 Group. Timonium Hamfest 2011

View at Picasa Laurie and I. 2011 Timonium Hamfest.

The following day, Laurie and I made some adjustments to our 2 meter stack by adding a tilt-over base which allowed me to change the polarity on the cubical quad. Now I can get into N2KEJ’s repeater in South Jersey.

View at Picasa Make shift tilt-over for aluminum military mastNIKON COOLPIX L100 , 4.7, 19.0mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 211

View at Picasa Cubex 2m Cubical Quad and Diamond CP22E verticalNIKON COOLPIX L100 , 4.3, 12.2mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 80

Laurie, KB3SIK had seen the Kenwood TH-F6A during our most recent Project Lifesaver exercise and really liked the size of the rig compared to her TH-D7AG that I got her for Christmas. It wasn’t long before the D7 was on ebay and the F6A was enroute from Ham Radio Outlet. I was also looking into the radio as well since I’m in need of a receiver that can do 216mhz on sideband. The Project Lifesaver beacons output a minimal amount of power around the 216-217mhz band and their signature can be heard in sideband mode. It is possible to hear it on AM although what your hearing is a lack of signal, or drop of static when the beacon bursts. The usage of AM almost requires you to be within a 1/4 mile of the beacon’s location, even with a 6 element yagi.

Well it arrived today and I think I’m going to stick with my new D72A. The F6A is a little too small for me, although the fact that it can receive AM/FM/SSB and CW is a real help. Hopefully she’ll let me borrow it for our future outings. Check it out!

View at Picasa NIKON COOLPIX L100 , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 400	View at Picasa NIKON COOLPIX L100 , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 760	View at Picasa NIKON COOLPIX L100 , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 467
View at Picasa NIKON COOLPIX L100 , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa NIKON COOLPIX L100 , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa NIKON COOLPIX L100 , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.011 sec, ISO 800
View at Picasa NIKON COOLPIX L100 , 3.5, 5.0mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 585

In the weeks leading up to the ARRL DX Phone contest this year, Eric, WG3J and I did some extensive antenna planning at his QTH in Maryland in preparation for the upcoming contest. One of this biggest concerns was the amount of coax coming into the station. During a contest last year, we encountered a ton of RF affecting computers and audio causing an RF burn or two. Fun times.

How to resolve this? Reduce your coax run length and quantity by using antenna switches.

I reviewed a number of designs online and ended up designing my own, 2 position antenna switch which injects 12VDC onto the coax, so we didn’t require additional long lengths of control wire which could end up resonating RF.

View at Picasa Control board REV114-Feb-2011 22:47, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 111	View at Picasa Control board REV114-Feb-2011 22:47, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 131	View at Picasa Relay switch board. REV112-Feb-2011 02:25, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 107	View at Picasa Relay switch board. REV112-Feb-2011 02:25, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.017 sec, ISO 134
View at Picasa Relay switch board. REV112-Feb-2011 02:25, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 80	View at Picasa Relay board with components. 10KW relay.14-Feb-2011 22:50, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 457	View at Picasa Relay board with components. 10KW relay.14-Feb-2011 22:50, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 483	View at Picasa Relay board with components installed. 5kW relay.01-Mar-2011 00:30, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 355
View at Picasa Relay board with components installed. 5kW relay.01-Mar-2011 00:30, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 318	View at Picasa Relay board with components installed. 5kW relay.01-Mar-2011 00:30, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 375	View at Picasa Control Panel front22-Feb-2011 22:20, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 800	View at Picasa Rear of control panel22-Feb-2011 22:23, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 613
View at Picasa Control board under test15-Feb-2011 20:56, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 244	View at Picasa 2 position DPDT rotary switch15-Feb-2011 20:56, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 188	View at Picasa Control board mounted25-Feb-2011 00:21, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.008 sec, ISO 96	View at Picasa The makeshift assembly line in the shack.02-Mar-2011 08:58, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.033 sec, ISO 357

For the next 3 weeks part of my station would be turned into an assembly line, etching circuit boards, fabricating cases, etc.

A week before the contest, Eric and I put the switches through their paces by dumping 2.5kW at 100% duty cycle for about 10-20 seconds. This would help us assure that they would hold up to the contest pace.

I ended up building five switches, 2 rated at 10kW and 3 rated at 5kW. I’m happy to report success with the design with no smoke emissions. One thing we did find was a high SWR at 15m and above, which I believe I have a fix, that needs future testing.

Greetings from a fairly long blog posting hiatus. A few cool things have been in works around N3QO, on or near the top of the list is going 160m mobile. That’s right, 160m.

Barry, KU3X and I discussed the capabilities of 160m mobile in the summer. He had a successful coil design for his mast and whip combination with good signal reports into our nightly 160m net on 1900khz.

Fast forward to this last weekend where I acquired a quick disconnect (QDC) for my screwdriver antenna and a spool of 16ga enameled wire from the LVARC table, all at the Cherryville Hamfest in NJ. Now that I had the wire and QDC, what better time to build the coil and attempt to go mobile on 160m with my High Sierra HS-1500MKII screwdriver antenna.

At first I just winged it, and used a 3 inch PVC as the coil form, with 7 inches of exposed PVC between the end caps. I ended up with a 100 turn inductor that I would later discover calculates to 390uH of inductance. After reviewing someone elses blog about an inductor for this purpose, I ended up being about 110uH of too much inductance. After a little experimenting, I removed about 20 turns and tested again. I had found my resonance was around 5850khz.

This is where I started utilizing my MFJ-259B analyzer beyond the typical SWR readings. I had found a relationship to inductance at the resonant frequency to be 0uH, and 25uH at 1900khz, our target frequency.

With this new information I removed another 5 turns and now found I was around 4:1 SWR at 1900khz with resonance still up and around 5Mhz. It was then I remembered that the 40m shunt coil at the base of my antenna was still in the circuit. Once I removed the matching coil, SWR came down to 2:1. All I had to do now was to raise or lower to the desired resonance, 1:1 at 1900khz.

After I had the test case completed successfully, I re-evaluated the connection points, I decided to drill an entry point to wire the coil from inside the coil, which makes for a cleaner appearance. I also decided to anchor the caps with 4 screws each and not sealing the form in the event of internal coil failure. Because of this, a drain hole exists at the base, only millimeters away from the bottom connection point.

View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:23, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:23, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:22, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 50
View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:23, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:23, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:32, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 50
View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:32, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:32, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 50	View at Picasa 20-Mar-2011 18:32, EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY KODAK Zi8 Pocket Video Camera, 2.8, 6.34mm, 0.007 sec, ISO 50

Here are the specs on the coil:
Length not including quick disconnects: 11 inches
Turns: 75 (i think)
Calculated Inductance: estimated 270 uH
Tuning: Allows tuning down to 1815khz at 1:1 with screwdriver fully extended.

On air reports were surprisingly good. I have an Icom 706Mk2 running 100w.
I was S9+20 into Pittsville, MD, S7 into Western PA all from the Pottstown, PA area. This is typical of what I expected, but never that great of a signal.

I’m planning on building another coil with a few less turns with hopes of bringing resonance down to 1800khz even. Then this will truly be a 160m coil.

–jeff
N3QO

First off, HNY or Happy New Year for those not sporting digital modes on HF.

Any New Year’s resolutions? At first I didn’t think I had but I guess mine would be the following:

-Actually learn code (CW) besides, CQ DE N3QO, 5NN and TU. A future post…
-Not spend as much money on the hobby as I have in last 2 years, although a Flex 3000 is in works.
-Timonium Hamfest, Timonium, MD.
-Dayton Hamvention. Enough said.
-Sussex Hamfest, I missed this one in 2010 because of work on-call.
-The 2011 antenna projects. See next post.
-..and finally, operate more, build less.

Writing the last post (year in review), I realized I did more station building than actual operation. I’m hoping we have better sunspot performance this year, but now I’m poised to hunker down and start working some DX.

When the Hexbeam was moved this gave me a place to relocate my 2m vertical and 2m cubical quad. When I re-acquired the Hex, it also came along with the old Channelmaster rotor I previously used with it.

With the change in antenna size, weight, etc we were able to extend the mast another 4 feet and add a 6′ mast above the rotor. At approximately 40ft is the 2m vertical, with the quad at the bottom set to horizontal polarization. This allows for another antenna to be mounted in the middle, most likely another 2m cubical quad vertically polarized.

Back in September as read in the previous post, the Hexbeam went back up, although we had to relocate it. I had Dave (K3GMT), Lyle (KB3SXI) and Jay (N3OW) come out to help move the mast and guy points so we could actually rotate the Hexbeam. After a bit of testing, I had found that transmitting above 14Mhz caused a number of RF issues to occur in the house (eg. resetting TV’s, causing computer keyboards to lock up, etc.). This was due to the antenna being too low and the house being in the radiation pattern.

The idea was to scrap the satellite station project and move the Hexbeam to the roof a few weeks after the initial move. With some help from Harry (K3HVC), we were able to relocate the Hexbeam and retune it a bit. We also made room below the Hex for the home for a future 6m beam. Wiring is already complete, so installation should be cake when that day arrives.

Signal reports have been phenomenal. A week or 2 after the installation there was a 10m opening which I was easily able to work South Africa, barefoot without issue. 10-15+ signal reports working barefoot were welcomed.

Overall, I’ve been very happy with the decision to go back to the Hex. For my particular installation, it seems to be the best choice.

I took off from work yesterday (wed) and ended up playing around with some antennas. I wired up the hexbeam and rebuilt the feed point following Leo Shoemaker’s approach. I also added 17m to now make this a quad bander (20,17,15,10).

Hoisting the antenna up on the 25ft mast was quite a challenge, but it’s up. Unfortunately I misjudged the site where the antenna is located but putting it too close to my 40-80-160m inverted Vee and miscalculated the distance from some tree branches.

I would call it a failure, although I found the signal strength comparison between my previous Mosley TA-33 and Hexbeam to be a night and day difference. The Hexbeam works circles around the TA-33 which surprises me. Initially when I went from the hexbeam to the Mosley I didn’t notice too much of a change, but comparing it now having gotten used to the tribander for the last 6 months, I’m very happy with my decision to return to the unconventional design.

Now, I’m not saying the TA-33 is a bad antenna, but for my location it isn’t optimal. The beam was mounted 8ft above the roof around 25ft above ground. I think an antenna of this design would be optimal around 50ft and away from the house. I had found it to become quite a noise antenna that close to the house.

For this close proximity to ground, the hexbeam seems to be the best option I have available to me. A cubical quad may also be a good option as well.

So Sunday the plan is to relocate the antenna 20ft from it’s current site, which should prove to be quite a job. I’m hardly looking forward to installing new ground anchors.