2 Element Yagi for Remote DX

[hobie102]

Put together this 2 element yagi for shooting skip on the mountain with the car. Should have made up a quad from my conversation with a buddy from FL. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Match is perfect at .385-.555 at swr flat. No movement in the needle. Anyhoo, it breaks down in seconds compact enough to throw in the trunk of the car with the rear seats down. I will post a report later tomorrow after use.

 

[space cowboy]

looks good. what time you going to be pointing that thing towards detroit tomorrow?
what's your 20?

 

[wavrider]

Great portable antenna, with gain

 

[hobie102]

R U Kidding? That is downright FUGLY! LOL Embarrassing actually.I hope it works better than it looks. The ears were really good even sitting 5 feet off the ground in the driveway while tuning it. Was gonna do just a dipole but I'm spoiled by my Moxon. Heading up the mountain to an abandoned ski area to beam west around noon EST. I'll listen for ya!
2OR974VT

 

[hobie102]

Great portable antenna, with gain

Ya! Fingers crossed! I hope it talks as well as it listens.

 

[vkrules]

I'll give you A for effort But I think you will find you have detuned the ant to get the swr down. Have you tested it to see if you have any front to back

 

[vkrules]

A 2 el at your spacing would be about 20 Ohms direct feed won't work so I suspect you have tuned the driven el away from resonance .Do you have an analyzer I think you will find your feedpoint highly reactive. You need to make the boom longer say 78 inches to keep the feed point impedance up. This will change your driven element length( moxon boom measurements won't work with a 2 el yagi) I ran your dimensions through yagi cad .You should be getting some gain and front to back And the impedance is close to 40 ohms , which would show a low vswr ,but the reactance is over 44 ( allowing variations for height above ground and wire size used)

 

[mb91w126]

.Do you have an analyzer I think you will find your feedpoint highly reactive. )

102: if you need to borrow an analyzer, let me know, I'll send you my aa-54, it's pretty neat tool.

 

[hobie102]

Thanks VK for your input. Very informative. Testing begins today so no idea at the moment.

126, thanks so much for the offer! Appreciate it my friend. I wouldn't want anything to happen to it so hold onto it for now. It will prob' be my next investment anyways.

Depending on how it goes I might end up just re-configuring it into a moxon. I have everything to do it. Would just need to lengthen/shorten the elements adjust the boom and install the spacers/insulators (cut strips of pvc) & voila! Portable moxon.

 

[357magnum]

You the man " Mad Scientist " when you make your quad I'll buy that one ! Fugly or not !lol

 

[hobie102]

Success! Many contacts to CA, pacific NW and everywhere in between. F/B seems good. Noticed when I got in the car running the sirio 5000 the noise level increased substantially as it should being vertical. Gain seems substantial as most stations were running considerably more power than I was. Great reports and now I need to get that thing up about 20+ feet. Looking at designing a pole that will slide into the hole in the trailer hitch of the truck stabilized with a couple of poles to the bed of the truck. It can be windy up there and don't want it falling over. I'm worried that the truck cap will screw with the antenna as it's aluminum. So simple to put up it's ridiculous. About 1 minute to assemble and another few seconds to raise and connect the coax. Gotta get it at least 5/8 wavelength high. I meant to say the design except for the frame I got off the net from somewhere. Can't remember. The frame idea I came up with myself. Needed to be portable, quick and simple.

 

[hobie102]

You the man " Mad Scientist " when you make your quad I'll buy that one ! Fugly or not !lol

heck man, I'll just build ya one LOL. it's a daunting challenge but doable. The next antenna will def' be a cubical quad. now that will be fun! Buy the materials and we'll make a weekend out of it! Cheers and Beers! I just love that phrase! lol

 

[vkrules]

Glad it works for you. Have to give you a shout from downunder nrxt time your up the hill. 853 downunder Brisbane, de VK4AAP

 

[vkrules]

Going to convert my 4 element 13 ft boom yagi to a 5el 23 ft yagi today Weather permitting . We have a holiday today because Obama and the other G20 leaders are in town.

 

[hobie102]

VK, be sure and let us know how that conversion turns out. Sure wish I could hit that division. The skip would have to be really rolling here as it usually begins around 7:30 ish a.m. and begins to die at around 5 p.m.

Skip till ya drop there VK & all the best,