A couple of months ago, I ordered a new mast and tripod from penningerradio.com to try with my Superantenna YP-3 portable yagi. The mast I ordered is a 21 foot telescoping aluminum mast with the matching tripod.
First, the end result with the antenna configured for 20 meters:
It has two sets of guys and the antenna is at 21 feet.
Mast:
Tripod:
I set it up in my back yard to see how this combination would work with the Superantenna YP-3 and the prototype Superantenna DC Rotator I found and purchased last year.
Well, things didn't go as well as I hoped. I raised the mast up with just the rotator attached and set the guys. Then I attached the antenna to repeat the process. While the tripod is incredibly strong, the mast is too flexible for an antenna configuration like this. I could not get the antenna and rotator raised up to the full height without the mast flexing and almost tipping the whole thing over! I even had two sets of guys that I was using, but it just wouldn't work.
I removed the rotator and tried the mast with just the antenna. This worked better, although it was still a little testy. The mast still flexed quite a bit as I pushed it toward the tallest point. Fortunately the preset guys sprung the mast back into shape, but it wasn't a good setup. I really need to find a portable telescoping mast that can handle this antenna; so far I'm not having much luck.
I was really impressed with the quality of the Penninger tripod. Here are a few close-ups pics of it, starting with the top and bottom clamps
Here's the deployed tripod. It's on a brick because the lawn isn't level. I used some large tent pegs to hold the tripod in place:
As a side note, I have never been able to get this YP-3 antenna down to an SWR curve that looks anything like the documented graph on 20 meters:
I was able to get it down to under 2:1 swr across about a 30 khz range. I've also never had an opportunity where I could deploy the antenna in the clear, either. My back yard is surrounded by power wires, trees, houses, etc. I have a feeling that I could match the supplied chart if I had a little open space to work with.
As it turned out, I finally got the antenna setup stablized (where it wouldn't fall over) with about 45 minutes of daylight left. I took a few pics and then tried to make some contacts with my Yaesu 897D. I was receiving a real strong Alaska station that I couldn't get a break in for a contact. After that I swung the beam all around to try to get a contact or two for all the hard work for nothing. I ended up taking the antenna down in the dark to try another day.
I really need to find a portable mast that will support this cool antenna.
First, the end result with the antenna configured for 20 meters:
It has two sets of guys and the antenna is at 21 feet.
Mast:
Tripod:
I set it up in my back yard to see how this combination would work with the Superantenna YP-3 and the prototype Superantenna DC Rotator I found and purchased last year.
Well, things didn't go as well as I hoped. I raised the mast up with just the rotator attached and set the guys. Then I attached the antenna to repeat the process. While the tripod is incredibly strong, the mast is too flexible for an antenna configuration like this. I could not get the antenna and rotator raised up to the full height without the mast flexing and almost tipping the whole thing over! I even had two sets of guys that I was using, but it just wouldn't work.
I removed the rotator and tried the mast with just the antenna. This worked better, although it was still a little testy. The mast still flexed quite a bit as I pushed it toward the tallest point. Fortunately the preset guys sprung the mast back into shape, but it wasn't a good setup. I really need to find a portable telescoping mast that can handle this antenna; so far I'm not having much luck.
I was really impressed with the quality of the Penninger tripod. Here are a few close-ups pics of it, starting with the top and bottom clamps
Here's the deployed tripod. It's on a brick because the lawn isn't level. I used some large tent pegs to hold the tripod in place:
As a side note, I have never been able to get this YP-3 antenna down to an SWR curve that looks anything like the documented graph on 20 meters:
I was able to get it down to under 2:1 swr across about a 30 khz range. I've also never had an opportunity where I could deploy the antenna in the clear, either. My back yard is surrounded by power wires, trees, houses, etc. I have a feeling that I could match the supplied chart if I had a little open space to work with.
As it turned out, I finally got the antenna setup stablized (where it wouldn't fall over) with about 45 minutes of daylight left. I took a few pics and then tried to make some contacts with my Yaesu 897D. I was receiving a real strong Alaska station that I couldn't get a break in for a contact. After that I swung the beam all around to try to get a contact or two for all the hard work for nothing. I ended up taking the antenna down in the dark to try another day.
I really need to find a portable mast that will support this cool antenna.
You said that you wanted something that would work, not what it should cost