Time To RE-think Antenna

[flintstone mop]

Hello Everyone
I have to think about sending someone up a crane bucket truck to fix----replace--my A3S Yagi and the rotator. The last couple of almost 80 MPH winds have caused extensive damage to the elements of the Yagi and the rotator brakes must be damaged as the Yagi drifts from its parked position a little.

My RE-thinking is to abandon the Yagi/Rotor and install insulated spacers every 5 feet and mount maybe 2 #10 or 8 solid wires down the pole to become antennas.

I have read that a vertical 43 feet long on 20M is 5/8 wave and has some decent gain at just the right angle for DX.

The other vertical wire could be for other bands.

My use of the "upper bands" even during the sunspot max may not warrant the expense and maintenance of a Yagi. I know that verticals receive and transmit equally poor in all directions and the Yagi/Rotor at 70 feet might have some advantages down the road.
Which road should I take? Tear down the Yagi/Rotor and go with some nice tall verticals OR FIX my problems AND have both types of antennas on this 70 foot pole???

Or what "Road" would you suggest?

The crane rental would be $500 for 4 hours.

Thanks for all thoughts

Fred

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

What's wrong with a dipole?

[flintstone mop]

OOOOPS Steve,
I should mention that there is a VEE up there fed with open ladder line.

Fred

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

FB. I don't see how a vertical would be much, if any better.

[N3DRB The Derb]

I didnt noe that you had a interest in teh ultra- highs, Phred.  I can remember using those bands.....


At one time I had a Tentec Omni C slopbukit rig with a SB200 maul. I put up a delta loop for 40 and 15 meters. That thing was the bomblet on 15. Nobody bothered me.  I also used it with a Atlas 350 XL. I'd take down the yagi and go all wire ants with open wire feeders for everything below 20.

[KL7OF]

once you go yagi........you can never go back

[K1JJ]

Fred,

As you've found, rotators are quite a bit of maintainance.  I don't use them anymore and have gone to fixed wire arrays (and aluminum Yagis) that are dedicated to a particular direction and job.  For the average installation, it's sometimes desirable to focus on only one or two bands at a time and put in a big effort into them - this creates more fun and better ears.


In your case, you might consider picking your favorite higher band(s) (10m-75m) and making up a phased driven dipole array switchable NE/SW.  Hang a single aluminum 2.5" - 3" diameter 30' boom at the top of the tower with pulleys and ropes on each end. Also, a pulley/rope on the tower at the top.  This will give you good spacing flexibility.  Then you can haul up any 2el or 3el wire antenna you wish as the years go by.  You could hang an inverted vee  driven array for 75M or 40M, or 20M or 15M or 10M and focus on one particular band at a time with big results.  You could also hang two (or three)  arrays for various bands as long as one of them is not 15M. (interaction)   The boom will swing around the tower 90 degrees if you hang it with overhead trussing, so you can manually hit other areas if desired, rather than just NE/SW.   Rotary antennas are not mandatory to have fun and performance.

Just like a flashlight, magnifying glass, telescope or megaphone, focusing and directing RF energy into a given direction results in hearing things that a bi-directional dipole or omni-vertical cannot hear. A front to back cancels out most of the atmospheric noise and QRM off the back, leaving a focused lobe in front to hear what counts.


Flexibility and easy maintainance becomes more important as we all get into old-buzzardom. Experimenting with easy-to-raise wire arrays is half the fun of ham radio.  ..


BTW, you don't need an expensive crane - take that Yagi down with a tram line run from the tower to the ground.  Ride the Yagi on a tram-pulley with a second rope controlling the descent.  I have put up and taken down full size 75M and 40M 300 pound Yagis by myself using that method.



T

[K5UJ]

I have a vertical on the high bands.  Here's my experience:   You always hear something like, "A such and such vertical on 20 m. is only N dB below a X element yagi....."  Something like that.  This may be true but what these statements never take into account is the difference on _receive_.    My yagi pals _always_ hear way more than I do.  And hearing is actually about 75% of the game, once you are in operation with your tx rig squared away.

This is why I am planning a 2 el. quad (10 foot turning radius which is great for my 50 x 100 foot lot) on a 40 foot telescoping crank up mast with the rotator at the base.  Perhaps something like this might work for you too?  I don't want to climb.

Another idea might be the same ant. with rotator at the top but on an aluminum lattice tower that's free standing but with a hinged bottom and a cable on a crank on a stout pipe going up 15 feet to a pully that's about 20 feet away so you could reel up and down the whole thing for work.  Just ideas but surely this has got to be better than verticals.

73
rob / k5uj

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

As JJ said:

For the average installation, it's sometimes desirable to focus on only one or two bands at a time and put in a big effort on  them - this creates more fun and better ears.

For the next few years, if it's DX you are interested in, 40 meters is where the action will be. You might want to put your larger effort there.

[WA1GFZ]

I had a 2 element quad up for 19 years and loved it. When we got 17 and 12 meters I thought the antenna would look too busy since I had 3 feed lines as it was. I changed over to a LPDA and really love it. 20 through 10 takes power like a dummy load. 1 antenna 5 bands done deal.

[K1JJ]

One of our AM brethren is planning to put up a quad stack of those 10M-20M SteppIR antennas.  (FOUR SteppIRs!)

With a click of the controller box, the stack will reverse direction in 3 seconds.  A fixed stack to the NE will cover SW.   A second fixed stack to the SE will cover NW.  Four directions. No rotators. 

Hope the spots come back.


T