Hello, Anybody have any thoughts on side by side phased monoband yagis? Is it worth it in your opinion? I am just tossing the idea around that if I had two identical yagis and spaced them apart 1/2 wavelength, same height with a phasing harness. I already have one yagi and thinking to get another if its worth the effort or not. I dont have the mast to do a vertical stack. Thanks for advice.
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Side by side phased Yagis?
- Thread starter hotpepper
- Start date
It is a lot of work in setup, and a lot of maintenance is likely.
Maco makes a stacking setup "MKSB" for their beams mounted vertical. You may also find something about it on CBTricks website.
Good luck.
A lot of people had phased yagis back in the 70's. IMHO they learned how much harder it is to keep them up then it was to originally put them up. Even a pair of three element yagis is a large antenna to maintain and the wind loading is formidable. If everything is done 100% perfectly correct you might see 2 or 2.5 dB gain. Rarely if ever do you see the theoretical 3dB gain and this is only one half an S-unit difference. IMHO you would be better off going with a larger single yagi and then the only real advantage is the wind loading. The extra gain is minimal. If it were me I would mount one vertical and the other at the same height but horizontal. Switching between the two most often realizes a MUCH bigger difference than simple extra gain alone.
As previously stated it is a lot of work for a little more gain. Better off either getting one big yagi or a smaller one mount it horizontal and put a vertical antenna above that. This reminds me of a local about 15 mi north of me that ran 2 jo gunn 6's vertical at 70 ft. They are not up anymore but he definitely talked when they were lol. Impressive to look at as well. The jo gunn site has a pic up under the testimonials. I'm not trying to advertise for jo gunn either..I think that they are overpriced. They are however the only beam that provides "audio gain" which allows you to "drop the maul" and "just get down"
"audio gain" LOL Yeah sort of like a colour TV antenna. LOL
As said above. ,Lot of work for little gain, the wind loading is 3 times or more higher.And the most gain you can expect is about 2db.
Rule of thumb is twice the boom length twice the gain, not twice the no of elements. A better option is to go a single long boom yagi. most cb manufactures use short booms to entice the customer with the max no of elements per boom length.
To get 3db of gain you need to go twice the boom length ( the biggest bang for buck is the first parasitic element by the way like a single el to a 2 el it's diminishing returns after that ).
So for example you have a 4 meter long 4 element beam you could go 4 or 5 elements on a 8 meter boom and easy get 3 db gain with a lot less wind loading than a 2 x 4 setup..
Rule of thumb is twice the boom length twice the gain, not twice the no of elements. A better option is to go a single long boom yagi. most cb manufactures use short booms to entice the customer with the max no of elements per boom length.
To get 3db of gain you need to go twice the boom length ( the biggest bang for buck is the first parasitic element by the way like a single el to a 2 el it's diminishing returns after that ).
So for example you have a 4 meter long 4 element beam you could go 4 or 5 elements on a 8 meter boom and easy get 3 db gain with a lot less wind loading than a 2 x 4 setup..
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two things to consider..
1- The lenght of the boom and the KG's of the antenna can produce more "force" on a rotator / mast compared to a stack.
2- If we setup a vertical stack it means we can "move the antennas away" from the mast.
The influence of the mast with a vertical setup is often underestimated.
Most who use such a system cant measure antenna patterns.
They "look" at the SWR.. often heard is those who "struggle" to obtain good SWR values. That last on is a hugh sign the antenna pattern is mixed up.
So...one could certainly bennefit to go for a stack instead fo a single long boom.
But if done...it is wise to "recalculate" the entire system.
as with stacking often large sidelobs show up which can be illuminated resulting in a overall better system.
Hope it is of use.
Kind regards,
H.
1- The lenght of the boom and the KG's of the antenna can produce more "force" on a rotator / mast compared to a stack.
2- If we setup a vertical stack it means we can "move the antennas away" from the mast.
The influence of the mast with a vertical setup is often underestimated.
Most who use such a system cant measure antenna patterns.
They "look" at the SWR.. often heard is those who "struggle" to obtain good SWR values. That last on is a hugh sign the antenna pattern is mixed up.
So...one could certainly bennefit to go for a stack instead fo a single long boom.
But if done...it is wise to "recalculate" the entire system.
as with stacking often large sidelobs show up which can be illuminated resulting in a overall better system.
Hope it is of use.
Kind regards,
H.
Hey I really appreciate the replies, I will think this over, but yes it sounds like its not worth the effort to run side by side phased yagis. I have two identical towers, one has the 11M yagi on it. The other still needs to be installed, I'm now thinking to put a tribander on it.
Don't pay any attention to my opinion, but if you ya feel like co-phasing two yagi antennas then go for it! Sometimes ya just gotta do you. I have a V quad and it has crossed my mind more than once to get another one and co-phase them, just for the simple fact that I could look at them and quote John Travolta, AIN'T IT COOL!!
Shadetree Mechanic
Delaware Base Station 808
I ran stacked 17-element VHF yagis years ago. They worked well but were not worth the effort, I will never do that again.
BJ radionut
Supporting Member and 6m addict
Hello all: The trick thing with stacked vertical beams is setting up phasing coax switch that can switch the beams in phase or 180 degrees out of phase. The in phase mode the beams work normally. But out of phase you have only the gain of one antenna, but you will have significant null -30 to -40 dB in the forward direction. Great for direction finding, or eliminating unwanted stations. Great for tactical cb communications.
Jay in the Grate Mojave Desert
Jay in the Grate Mojave Desert