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Super Antennas YP-3 Portable Multi-Band Yagi Review

Moleculo

Ham Radio Nerd
Apr 14, 2002
9,194
1,674
283
I recently purchased a Super Antenna YP-3 portable yagi antenna, so of course I'll write about it over the next several months to give it a good review. This yagi is a 3 element antenna that assembles and breaks down quickly to make it suitable for portable field use. For 12 -20 meters, loading coils are used to shorten the elements. It is a full sized 3 element yagi on 6 and 10 meters. It even comes with a tape measure, which you need to set up the antenna for the various bands. The price of the portable YP-3 yagi is $395, which seems a little high at first glance. However, after you see the design engineering and quality that has gone into this antenna I think it's pretty easy to justify the price.

The pictures of the YP-3 yagi on http://www.superantennas.com are OK, but they leave a lot to be desired if you're trying to understand the design, construction, and assembly of the antenna. First, the antenna is truely "portable"; the whole thing fits into a quality 3 foot nylon padded bag that is included with the antenna. Here is a pic of the closed up bag with the antenna inside:

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The inside of the bag has elastic pouches to keep all of the loading coils organized and out of harm's way from the rest of the antenna. Pouches store all of the miscellaneous parts. You can see here how everthing fits into the bag:

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The boom of the Super Antenna YP-3 yagi is constructed of several 3 foot pieces that telescope into each other, snapping into place with spring loaded buttons. The boom has presets that allow you to set it at either the 11 foot length or the 8 foot length. The 8 foot boom length is only for 6 meters. Here is a pic of how the boom telescopes with the spring loaded buttons:

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Here is the boom assembled at it's fullest length:

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And here is a close-up that shows the overall length of the boom. You can also see the block where the element screws onto the boom:

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All of the telescoping aluminum pieces are very well manufactured without any slop. If you've ever tried to buy various pieces of metal tubing that telescopes, you can quickly appreciate the cost of the materials that goes into an antenna like this.

Here is the stainless steel and aluminum mast clamp. The screw on top allows you to slide the clamp assembly along the boom to where you like it.

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More to follow...
 

Moving on to the Yagi's elements...

The elements are also constructed using high quality aluminum tubing. Each element is made up of up to five pieces. There are four tubing pieces that step down in diameter from 5/8" to 1/2" to 3/8" to 1/4". The fifth component is an optional load coil, which depends on the band in use. This design helps make the elements strong enough to support themselves with the coil in the middle, but also helps keep the overall weight of the antenna down.

The two larger aluminum pieces telescope into each other, as do the two smaller segments. One end of the 5/8" section has a brass threaded piece pressed into the end to attach to the boom mounting block the other end telescopes into the 1/2" section. The non-telescoping end of the 1/2" section also has a brass threaded end to attach to either a coil or coupling nut, depending on the band desired. Here is a close up shot of the threaded end of the 5/8" section:

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You can see from this shot how nicely machined the threaded ends are. The telescoping ends are fitted with a permanent aluminum collar and a threaded thumb screw. The collar both adds strength to the joint and also provides a sufficient amount of thread to allow you to tighten the thumbscrew down so that the length of the element will not move. Here is what the telescoping ends look like when they are assembled:

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Here is a picture of the 20 meter load coil that is placed in the center of the four element sections"

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.

The load coil is composed of a short piece of PVC that has been turned on a lathe to create one continuous groove to lay the cooper wire in. The wire has been laid and wound on the pvc in the grooves by some type of machine resulting in a coil that is wound tight and stable. There is no way that the spacing will change between turns, nor will it come unwound unless the user takes it apart for some reason. These pieces are also well designed and constructed.

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The ends of the coils are round aluminum stock that has been made to exactly the same outside diameter as the inside diameter of the PVC it is pressed into. It is drilled and tapped to allow threading on the elements. Stainless machine screws hold the whole assembly together.

Here is a shot of an assembled element for 20 meters attached to the boom:

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More to follow...
 
After you get the first element piece measured and assembled for your band of choice, assembling the remainder of the element sections goes very quickly. The 3 larger tubes on each section are all the same length; you only need to adjust the final end piece for length. I assembled them by just placing each section next to the measured length and then measuring the final piece. After you have done it this way a couple of times, you can come up with a method that is reliable and precise.

Here are the pics of the remainder of the antenna being assembled. Two elements attached:

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All three elements:

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Another picture of the antenna assembled for 20 meters:

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The matching section of the antenna is a beta or "hairpin" match. The way this match is assembled and designed couldn't be any simpler. It's basically just some ring terminal lugs that are soldered onto brass "coat hanger" style rod. You attache the terminal lugs between the elements and the mounting block. A piece of round aluminum stock that is drilled slides onto the other end. The instructions give you the dimension to adjust it to for each band. It's simplicity is almost ingenious.

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I assembled this antenna while I was staying at my sister's home in my RV for Thanksgiving. I took down the dipole and put the SuperAntenna YP-3 up to see what I could do with it. Here is a picture of the antenna mounted on a fruit-picker fiberglass mast at 16 feet above the RV:

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I had my son help me mount the antenna on the mast on the ground and then I just hand carried it to the RV mount. I imagine one could mount the antenna alone, especially if you had something to lean the antenna against. It is very light weight and easy to handle when fully assembled.

As you can see, the fruit picker fiberglass mast had no difficult supporting the antenna. It very windy on one day and, while the mast would rotate around in the wind, it never bent under wind load.

Here is another picture of the antenna mounted above the RV:

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With this mast, the elements are right at 6 feet off of the top of the RV. I know this because that's how tall I am, and I bumped the top of my head on it while walking on top of the RV toward the antenna and looking at the ground :eek:hmy:. You can also see from this picture that I made a 1:1 choke balun because of the unbalanced beta match used on this yagi. The ladder line shown in this picture is not in use...it was for a different antenna.

Next up, antenna tuning and performance...
 
This next pic is a capture of the SWR/Gain curve graph for 20 meters from the manual:

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Notice how the entire voice portion of 20 meters on the right-hand graph is shown under 1.5:1 SWR with 6+db gain. My first test was putting the antenna above the RV, about 6 feet off the roof. The Super Antennas YP3 uses a beta match which is a balanced matching system. Since coax is unbalanced, I made a 1:1 coax choke balun in an attempt to isolate the feedline from the antenna. You can see in the previous pics the arrangement used. The antenna uses an interesting method to attach the feedline to the driven element. While the beta match is an easy method to construct and adjust for multiple bands, it requires that the driven element be split and isolated from the boom. In this antenna, the feedline is attached using a pair of banana jacks. A BNC to banana jack converter as well as a BNC to SO-239 adapter is supplied. Here is the pic again of how this arrangement is designed:

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When I attached the BNC to SO-239 adapter directly to the banana/bnc plug, it appeared that there was quite a bit of stress placed on the banana jack. You could alleviate this by using some velcro or tape secure the coax to the mast and take some of the load off of the antenna. If you're going to use a balun, you certainly should create some stress relief. I used a bungie cord to support the weight of the choke balun by suspending it from the boom and used a short RG-58 jumper with BNC connectors to attach to the antenna.

Back to the antenna tuning: I have not been able to get the SWR down as low or with as much bandwidth as the manual indicates with the antenna above my RV. Here is a pic of the analyzer with my first attempt:

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The bandwidth I achieved was quite a bit more narrow, but I didn't write down the measurements. I realize that I can adjust the elements to a lower frequency, but I have some initial theories as to why the antenna did not spec out to what is documented in the manual. First and foremost, the RV roof and body structure is composed of aluminum studs. I have a feeling that the horizontal aluminum structure 6 feet under the antenna severely affects the antenna. I put the antenna up a second time over the RV, but parked in a different location and got similar readings. Secondly, I didn't have the antenna high enough. The measurements in the manual indicate a necessary height of about 20 feet to get the antenna to tune. Mounted above the RV, the antenna is only about 16 feet high. I intend to get a better fiberglass push-up mast and run tests both over the RV and over regular earth with a tripod mount to compare the differences in tuning.

Directivity and Front-to-back rejection:

Even though I wasn't able to get the SWR as low as the manual indicated I should be able to, my Yaesu FT-897D was fine with a 1:7 swr. If I got too far out of it's comfort zone, I just used the tuner to touch it up a bit. I realize that this isn't the best thing to do with a yagi, but you gotta do what you gotta do. By my non-scientific tests, I can definitely confirm that this antenna will produce rear and side rejection while providing some gain on 20 meters. Using this antenna I was able to have a good QSO with a special event lighthouse station on the border of Maine and Canada from my RV station in Flagstaff, AZ. Next I pointed it toward Europe and had good copy on a Belgium Station. i attempted to contact him for a while, but I just couldn't compete with all of the high power stations. Later in the evening I pointed it toward the west and was able to copy another Japan station quite well.

Being Thanksgiving, I didn't have a lot of time to try and work DX, but my initial tests gave me a fair amount of confidence that this antenna is very worthwhile, especially considering the price and bands available with it. My first setup attempt took about 45 minutes to assemble and raise the antenna, however my next attempt only took 20 minutes with two phone call interruptions from my wife :D.

I've ordered a taller/stronger push up mast to try with the antenna. When it arrives, I'll test the antenna tuning both above the RV and alone in the clear. I'm hoping that the antenna will tune lower once I get it to a proper height and I'm anxious to see how far off of the RV structure it will take to do this, as well.

It will probably be a few weeks before the mast and other parts arrive so stay tuned....
 
I love mine..Like you said on the Banana Clip..There is alot of stress on,other then that for a portable Yagi,have had no complaints..good signal reports.i have mine as a fixed set up,so i had to determine where i was going to use the beam at.73s and happy holidays...
 
That is an interesting add on, you see that Moleculo?

The choke for a balanced feeding.
10 turns of RG188 PTFE-coax on a PVC-tube 25 mm.
 
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That's a convenient way of doing it. I basically did the same thing, but hung it on the mast.
 
I will be getting the YP-3 Yagi Antenna, 21' Mini Tower, and PR-1 Portable 12v Rotator. I live by Tacoma, WA and will be driving to Portland, OR to see the antenna set up and check it out this weekend. According to Super Antenna website the PR-1 Portable 12v Rotor is not available yet. The fellow I am buying the antenna, etc. from said the PR-1 I am getting is one of 5 prototypes made for Super Antenna.

I just retired July 1 and have been looking for an antenna for my Travel Trailer. When this antenna appeared on craigslist, I thought this would be the perfect setup for my RVing. I am also running an SGC QMS (Quick Mount System) on my family car and when I travel I will be moving it to my Pickup so I can do HF while traveling. The 9 foot whip will have to be tilted back 45 degrees or so to clear overhead wires and branches. :)

I will keep you posted.
 
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I did an inventory of the parts in my YP-3 bag. I was missing a couple of thumb screws but I had duplicates of the arms. If I had a YP-1 hub I could almost make a horizontal dipole.

Moleculo did your bag have extra parts?
 
I wonder how that thing would play on a cold Jan. night in Minnesota? Something tells me those exposed coils are made for you boys in the tropics. We run portable from our ice fishing houses and some days in January when the wind chill is -100 F and snow is butt deep to a tall Indian.
 

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