Tag Archives: hex beam

2010 year in review

Posted by on January 2, 2011 No comments

As I’m thinking about what to write about 2011, I’m realizing that 2010 was a pretty kick ass year in the hobby for me and I’m starting to realize I’ve done too much. Here’s a summary.

In February I was introduced to 160m and found a great group located in the PA/NJ/DE/MD area who are on 1900khz every night at 8pm. I would finally get to meet them face to face at the Timonium Hamfest in Maryland which would start an every other Saturday tradition of breakfast in Delaware with the guys.

The hexbeam I built back in the previous October (2009) survived the 2ft of snow we saw in March. I would find myself being invited to operate the ARRL DX contest at NE3F’s, which is always fun but also quite an endurance run. I also started operating HF mobile and ended up working VK7ZE on our way to our club station with 100w in a screwdriver antenna on 20m. He was working the states long-path, some 14k miles.

Early in April, I decided to try a 3 element Mosley TA-33 tribander and ended up selling my Hexbeam to Dave (K3GMT). Also in April, I went QRO with a Dentron Clipperton which would be a requirement for 160m in the summer. 1200watts with a set of 4 572B’s. The transformer makes a menacing growl when it’s cranked on 40m, truely a welcomed addition to the shack.

Early in May, Jon (N3INJ) called to tell me 6m was open, of which I didn’t have an antenna for. Within about 45 minutes, I had a 6m delta loop up in the air and started making first 6m contacts. Later that month Laurie and I made it to Dayton. This was our first and plan to make it a yearly event.

I started off the month of June by rotating the polarity of my 2m cubical quad to horizontal and start working 2m sideband. So far it’s been slow, but my furthest stations I’ve worked was Pittsburgh and Connecticut, but the ARRL VHF contest was a blast!

The 1900 guys and I would end up doing a Field Day Expedition to Assateague Island in Maryland. It took a fair bit of planning, governmental politics and a little bit of cash, but we pulled it off. We also pulled off toasting an Alpha amplifier and an Icom 7000. But we all made it out alive with a new experience under our belts and I experienced a pileup the night before on PSK from the beach.

Early in July, I installed the trapped 40/80/160 antenna and start getting S9+40-50 signal reports on 160m, something no G5RV would do. Later that month I would end up in,out and then back in the hospital for a perforated appendix, which made for good rest time for DX at home, but no HT’s in the hospital. I also missed out on IoTA weekend, bummer.

In August I started playing around with satellites and sold the Icom 746 and purchased a Yaesu 847. Just as quickly as I got into this mode, I was out of it, but I walked away with a QSO with Commander Doug Wheelock aboard the ISS while we were mobile.

September my HF configuration came full circle. I ended swapping out the Mosley for my previously rebuilt hexbeam. Luckily for me, K3GMT’s plans for it didn’t work out, and I have my creation back on the roof and working DX like a mad man. At the same time we relocated the 2 meter antennas to a newly installed guyed mast just behind the garage.

October 1st I would wake to find my shack in the basement flooded due to a large rainfall. A normally quiet sump pump would awaken in the night, but a tripped GFI breaker caused it to stop and leave me with a foot of water. No ham equipment was harmed, but the shack ended up being relocated to the dining room. Luckily for me I have a loving, understanding and licensed (general) YL. Speaking of which She and I worked the PA QSO party, but she has not yet given up my Icom 706. I don’t have the heart to take it back, and not that I need it, but it gives me an excuse to buy another rig.

The last quarter of 2010 has been fairly quiet. I’ve been voted into the board for my radio club, working towards DXCC, working more CW and playing around with APRS.

Laurie and I are both looking forward to a prosperous 2011, with me hopefully working HF mobile once again. Hi Hi.

Hexbeam down, Mosley up

Posted by on March 11, 2010 2 comments

Yesterday, since I ran out of room in a 1 car garage, we finished assembling the Mosley in the backyard. All that’s left is to install the feedpoint and run some frequency sweeps on it. And No, that isn’t a miniature picnic table.

Earlier today I swapped out the Hex-beam with the Mosley TA-33. With the upcoming storms lining up for the new few days, I wanted to get this thing in the air. The receive quality is spectacular and already I’ve worked Greece and Nigeria with 5-8-5-9 reports. The performance is very comparable to the hex-beam with a good deal less noise.

Alot has changed at N3QO….

Posted by on October 29, 2009 No comments

In the course of the last month while talking with Jay (N3OW), I’ve been introduced to Hex Beams. I initially was introduced to them a while back after seeing the $500+ kit from DX Engineering, but didn’t think much of it. If it wasn’t a dipole, yagi or vertical it wasn’t of optimal design… Or so I thought.

After reading a number of reviews of the design from various vendors, I decided to venture in building one myself. I went out with a minimal budget and bought 1/16″ plate steel, U-bolts and 12′ crappie poles. This would serve as my $250 prototype. I had found that my implementation of the design was weak and quite fragile in nature, but it did make it up on the roof in one piece with elements for 20 and 15 meter. Also to note, there are 2 styles of Hex beam. The original places the reflector in an opposing M-shape from the W-shaped driven element. In 2007 a ham discovered that the reflector could be reconfigured to form the outer shape of the hex which would ultimately increase front-to-back ratio and make the antenna broadband in nature, giving us a much lower SWR.

I had found this antenna had more front-to-back ratio than the Cushcraft MA5B I had just taken down. At most I had seen 12db f/b on the Cushcraft, and a minimum of 18 on the hex beam. At peak I had found approximately 24db while working a station in Ireland.

My first contact on the hex was Chris (9Y4D) in Trinidad who reported back a 59+10. A signal report I had never seen at 100 watts. I would later work another station in Italy with the same report. I was sold.

It was time to make the design more permanent and it was time for the Cushcraft to be put up for sale. The money for the MA5B completely covered the upgrade costs for the MaxGain Hexbeam spreader kit. This kit is a MUST! Don’t even bother with the crappie poles. They are just that, crappy. I broke 2 of them on the ground just trying to get the spreaders under tension and then trying to get it up on the roof. Spend the $140 and go the right route. You won’t regret it. I also found the original base I had built had warped under the tension of the spreaders. For another $30, I rebuilt the base, way overkill than it needed to be. Regardless, it won’t be a part which will fail.

After 2 hours of rebuilding, restringing and then raising the antenna, I was back on the air with 20-15-10m capabilities, with a very flat and acceptable SWR Sweep.

Below are photos of the build and SWR sweep images.