Maco Shooting Star

[Shadetree Mechanic]

here is hopefully a better pic. you all have all come up with very good valid possibilities. I appreciate all the responses.
thanks for the input also which channel do you all usually monitor and talk skip? keep your ears open for Lonestar 281 deep south Texas.

Our local channel is 20 and we talk skip there when it rolls in. Ch 28 am and 38 lsb have good skip sometimes too.

 

[LoneStar 281]

Our local channel is 20 and we talk skip there when it rolls in. Ch 28 am and 38 lsb have good skip sometimes too.

still working on better pic I just cant get it to my laptop...

 

[LoneStar 281]

It looks like your horizontal gamma match goes right passed the vertical radiator. It would seem to me that the horizontal gamma would need to go the other way so it will not be near anything that would interfere with it. I think someone else here had a similar problem not too long ago. Maybe they can help.

 

[LoneStar 281]

like said I got a lot of good feed back. I will be definitely trying some different things but first need to get the mast in its currently 3 foot down and 1 foot up I agree it needs to be higher. but I got to excited just to put it up.

 

[LoneStar 281]

Another issue: He has the rotor sitting on the top plate of the tower. This will make it almost impossible to raise the mast so the antenna clears the tower.
The rotor needs to sit inside the tower 2 or 3 feet down, then a thrust bearing on the top plate so enough mast can be used for the vertical portion of the antenna to clear the tower.
That's one reason I never cared for a dual-polarity beam antenna.
The extra wind load, larger rotor plus H/D mast pipe just not worth the extra expense.
I always had a ground plane above the horizontal yagi. Vertical yagis were always PITA unless they were for 2 meters
My 2 cents worth.
All the Best
Gary

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Well, to start with,............... you tower "might" be interfering with the vertical elements.

... and the horiz ones too, but to a lesser degree.
You have the boom going thru the tower,.........................have you considered adding some mast to get the antenna above the tower?

FWIW I ran a Wilson Shooting Dtar on a 40 foot tower and about 5 or 6 feet of mast out the top which meant almost half the vertical elements were below the top of the tower. Never had a problem with matching the antenna on either V or H. The pattern seems pretty decent as well. Not saying it was not skewed a bit but if it was it was not noticeable when beaming to a known location. I do agree about the H gamma arm not being run past the V element however. That will indeed mess things up a bit.

 

[LoneStar 281]

Well Thanks to all the Great Advice the problem has been solved. The tower was the interfering with the Vertical Gamma. In my excitement to get the Shooting Star I had used a mast that was laying around # FT which was way to short. went with a 8ft Mast
and even at 10 feet up with and old &( Trans Am underneath it the Vertical SWR went to less than one. but hold the fort!!!! my Smoking Gunn II is holding it ground I don't know or have testing equipment other than a Dosy TFC-3001-S which is connected to the Ranger 2995 and the Shooting Star. I can hear the same Modulation on both. My
other radio is just set up with the tuning I did before I disconnected the Dosy. and it doesn't have any amplified power other than the Factory 4 watts. Today skip working South from Me today I at the southern tip of Texas. McAllen Edinburg Area.but was able to make contact with Coasta Rica, San Luis Porte S Mexico and a town right down from me Reynosa,Tamp. Mexico. its all good guys I'm new at this so its still so exciting to me. In the last Year Ive gone from a A-99 the added the ground planes no real difference. then ordered the Maco Shooting Star but being I am in a wheel Chair part of the time due to a left Leg amputation I just cant get the hang of the prostatic (no sure why but when I was spelling prosthetic the word prostitute cam to mind) any way back to the story the Shooting Star was just to dam large for me to build by my self so I ordered the Smoking Gunn II and this little thing rock talked skip all over South America North America. every ware, locally the factory setting have always worked for me because I would be lost not knowing the Technical part of the hobby. IM Learning tho. Have a good one and 73s to all.

 

[LoneStar 281]

FWIW I ran a Wilson Shooting Dtar on a 40 foot tower and about 5 or 6 feet of mast out the top which meant almost half the vertical elements were below the top of the tower. Never had a problem with matching the antenna on either V or H. The pattern seems pretty decent as well. Not saying it was not skewed a bit but if it was it was not noticeable when beaming to a known location. I do agree about the H gamma arm not being run past the V element however. That will indeed mess things up a bit.

YES SIR!!!!!!

 

[Shadetree Mechanic]

Well Thanks to all the Great Advice the problem has been solved. The tower was the interfering with the Vertical Gamma. In my excitement to get the Shooting Star I had used a mast that was laying around # FT which was way to short. went with a 8ft Mast
and even at 10 feet up with and old &( Trans Am underneath it the Vertical SWR went to less than one. but hold the fort!!!! my Smoking Gunn II is holding it ground I don't know or have testing equipment other than a Dosy TFC-3001-S which is connected to the Ranger 2995 and the Shooting Star. I can hear the same Modulation on both. My
other radio is just set up with the tuning I did before I disconnected the Dosy. and it doesn't have any amplified power other than the Factory 4 watts. Today skip working South from Me today I at the southern tip of Texas. McAllen Edinburg Area.but was able to make contact with Coasta Rica, San Luis Porte S Mexico and a town right down from me Reynosa,Tamp. Mexico. its all good guys I'm new at this so its still so exciting to me. In the last Year Ive gone from a A-99 the added the ground planes no real difference. then ordered the Maco Shooting Star but being I am in a wheel Chair part of the time due to a left Leg amputation I just cant get the hang of the prostatic (no sure why but when I was spelling prosthetic the word prostitute cam to mind) any way back to the story the Shooting Star was just to dam large for me to build by my self so I ordered the Smoking Gunn II and this little thing rock talked skip all over South America North America. every ware, locally the factory setting have always worked for me because I would be lost not knowing the Technical part of the hobby. IM Learning tho. Have a good one and 73s to all.

Man o man, I have got to get a beam up. Maybe a Maco 5 element or maybe a 4 element quad, don't know yet. Glad you were able to fix your problem, this is the best place to be and I have learned a lot in my short time here. 73!
Chris