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Base Best antenna of my life
- Thread starter xm49north7
- Start date
Thanks for your details young man. It's always good when ideas and plans come together, some meat and not just bones.
The one on the left was widened in the middle, to drop the swr from 3's across to get 1.3's across the band, left loop is about 10 feet behind the other loop , and they are roughly 1/2 wave 18 feet apart center to center. The left loop is boom hung out 4 feet, off my new internet tower, at 52 feet to the boom on apulley and was adjusted down about 3 feet to match the right loop for height.. So there she is , the one on the right is on a maple pole, which made a cheap non conductive mast. Cross arm are 3/4" spruce, ripped from 2x6 lumber. We just build with what we have kicking around. Been known to strip out old extension cords for some element wire in a pinch, laughs.
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Working on this design for a vhf, uhf, with 2 side by side sets of 3 elements each, with a screen reflector. Attached is my top hung home made 2 element quad, again on a wood pole with a pully at about 30 feet to the top; to low to work really well.
As Artie Shaw used to say: "very interesting." I see a metal roof over to the left. Any idea how it has impacted your set up...if it did at all?
Wish I knew, I know the tower is not ideal , as the one not on the tower works better for sure, than the one on the tower, and I am sure it effects out the back through the tower. I think the loops are high enough over the roof that all they would be doing is helping, maybe bounce some signal up or give me a bit of ground plain effect. That is why I use wood poles as much as I can, I do not think a loop on a metal pole would be very good. Funny thing though one night had a delta loop on the tower got me out like crazy, I think I had it turned so that the tower or one of the guy wires acted as a reflector, but it did not do it again, and I played with that delta loop for days, moving feed point etc, I never did get it to work like that again. It went in the bin in frustration. I took the 2 element quad down today and stripped it out, it was not high enough, and it would be hard for me to get up higher. I do not like not having a signal out the back either, I like the loops not omni but close enough, you do not have to turn them, I had the two loops set sort of one for n/s and one for east west, and on an a/b switch, but for the most part the one loop on the wood pole was always the one that seemed to work. The two together now are working amazing, I t will take some time to get a feel for how well it gets out the sides, and perhaps I can rotate the loops some and widen the pattern if needed. I do not have any equipment other than an swr meter and some mobiles, so we do things by feel, or I jump in the car and get one of the young people to talk to me while I take a drive.
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Yes this setup is working great. I still do not know how well I am getting out off the sides of this thing, time will tell. The solution of course is another set, have a n/s and an east west set, or put both loops on rotors. More than I have time, money or space to do right now, but maybe in the future. I can manually turn one of the loops quite easily, and I can turn the other one with a few mins of work, so I am able to rotate these in different directions, but where I live and the state of cb radio, almost nobody on the air, I have most of my locals (4) covered where the antennas sit. The tail end of skip season it was working well, I hit Florida for the first time, from here, near Ottawa Ontario. Hard to believe how a few loops of #14 wire can work so well.
I been using quads for years. I think they are the best antennas for working DX, I love them.
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
I have not tried it but the principal behind it seems sound. Might be able to find some reviews on eham.
“Best antenna of my life”
Reminds me of my 20th HS reunion:
“Who was your high school crush?”
Best answer: “Which class period”?
(Whatever’s up in the air right now)
.
Reminds me of my 20th HS reunion:
“Who was your high school crush?”
Best answer: “Which class period”?
(Whatever’s up in the air right now)
.