.64 homebrew temporally finished and up with pics

[BOOTY MONSTER]

my homebrew 5/8wgp has turned into a .64wgp . heres a few pics ....

and a closer pic of the tuning ring befor i installed the so-239 .

the dude that helped me had to leave unexpectedly so it doesnt have a coax choke and the feedpoint should have been 1 foot higher so the X hung down to fully straighten the wire ground elements , but its up and its working . their seems to not be enough slack to keep the antenna from preforming well though .

i just have my ears and some trusted locals to go by concerning its performance . the ears are definately better i can hear folks now on their bases that i couldnt hear at all befor and some that were scratchy are cleaner . what the locals are saying is a great example of how inaccurate s-meters on radios are . folks close to me say theres really little to no difference , no suprise due to close proximity . folks farther away say theyre getting up to 4+ additional s-units . i think thats a bit much , LOL . but i am able to talk to a few folks on ground wave barefoot now that i had to use power to be herd by them befor .

so ive got more ears and more signal strength being tx'ed , but certianly not 4 s-units for real . most are saying 1 to 3 more , still a bit generous , but i can tell a difference and so can locals/regulars on the other end .

my vswr has went down since it went up , which seems weird . with the verticle at 22 feet and 22 1/2 feet tall i couldnt get below 1.6 tuning it with the feedpoint 8 feet off the ground . with the verticle at 23 feet i was able to get down to 1.4 across 1-40 and it was 1.4 in the air the day it went up . a few weeks later and its now between 1.2 and 1.2 1/2 across 1-40 . i used noalox on its verticle and tapping point on the ring connections .

i want to make a few changes on it after the holidays . i want to swap the ground wires for horizontal ground elements (more tubing from DXengineering) and change the pressure treated 2x4 to a plastic 2x6 . i also plan to go to 2 inch condiuit for mast and get it a few feed higher . oh , and the coax choke , but i dont seem to have any noise or bleeding problems . my swr doesnt flop around when i mess with the extra coax , but ive read thats not really not a indicator of CMC's .

once again thanks to all who let me pick their brains and helps with their answers and advice .

......................................................... i think some sort of directional loop or H beams will be the project next spring .

 

[Robb]

Verrry cool...

 

[ken white]

Good job. Keep us updated as you tweek it and get it dialed in...

 

[mackmobile43]

Is the choke going to be affective when the antenna is totally isolated from ground as yours is? well with teh coax exception.

 

[TonyV225]

DITTO ON THE CL!!!

 

[linearone]

I like this! Good job Booty. You are inspiring me to go outside in the cold!!

 

[HiDef]

Nice project. One thing is it looks like there is no weatherproofing on the coax. If that's the case expect your SWR to get better and better. Loss in cable works on reflect too.

 

[HomerBB]

Great! I'm getting itchy to work on something again.

 

[cominatyalive]

Motivated to go out in the cold?
Zero degrees here at night now, screw that!

I'm envious. Good job Boot!

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

thanks for the positive comments guys

mack the chokes intent would have been to prevent CMC's from contiuing down the coax inside the house , plus to take up some of the slack coax in the house . it seems to be doing just fine without it . on quiet nights ive been talking groundwave barefoot about 40 miles on as a regular thing , of course i can use the 225 and be stronger , but i like that i can make the trip without it . a few nights ive been able to talk groundwave to almost 60 miles , but usually i have to kick in the 225 .... conditions

HiDef , im guessing you mean where the coax 259 connects to the so-239 and not the actual run of coax . it isnt taped or wrapped , but i did put a very light smear of noalox on the threads of the 239 befor i put the 259 on . ill get some of the noalox tape to put on it when i redo the ground elements in a few months . i may even upgrade the coax from 8x , but for my little 50 foot run and 200 watts going to .405 probally wont make any difference , other than a wider gap in the window to get it in the house .

thanks again guys for the kind words and helpful suggestions .

 

[bejo]

To Mr BOOTY MONSTER

is great job, iam interest since Mr Rob recomended to me to use your antenna, but can i ask to you regarding ground (radial) you are use 4 pcs Radial with 45 degree , can we use 4 pcs radial with horisontal position ? is influential with matching or not ?


thanks for your kind attention

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

thanks for the compliments mr. bejo .

my ground radials/wire are actually about 33 -35 degrees on their slope . i want to go to four horozontal elements (like you are planing to do) in a few months . changing the ground plane angle will affect the tuning of the antenna . weather it will be enought to have to compensate for ? i dont know , but im certianly gonna check and see if i can get a better tune . most every 5/8wgp that has ground radials use horozontal elements , but my money is short so ill get more tubing later and add them on . i already had the wire rig from an earlier homebrew so it was a cheap , easy and effective groundplane . im hoping to tell a positive difference for ther additional money and effort , but time will tell......

 

[CDX-007]

I'd like to see what would happen if you tried 5/8 wave long down-angle radials like EZNEC shows it needs.

I've been putting off doing that here- tired of lowering and raising that damn 5 section mast. Weighs a ton!

 

[Marconi]

I'd like to see what would happen if you tried 5/8 wave long down-angle radials like EZNEC shows it needs.

I've been putting off doing that here- tired of lowering and raising that damn 5 section mast. Weighs a ton!

007, I've heard this idea of 5/8 wave radials before, but how long will the radials be? Close to 22 feet???

 

[Robb]

007, I've heard this idea of 5/8 wave radials before, but how long will the radials be? Close to 22 feet???

This could be done simply by using metal guy wires at the base of IMAX that are 5/8 in length. Yes/no? I am still under the notion that this will just create TVI. No thought as to if it would actually improve antenna properties for the better. Perhaps the IMAX might not be the best guinea pig for this thought experiment. Since it doesn't have radials - and they do support a radial kit - maybe it would be worth the cost of replacing my dacron guy cable for measured length wire. Plug that possibility in the ENZAC program and see how it works. I don't have that software...
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