What are your thoughts on the VHQ Hexbeam

[Old Barney]

The bamboo I think the author got the poles wet and bent them slowly to form the curve then painted them to hold the shape then installed the wires. My memory isn't like it used to be.
I'm not certain your location but if you want the one I have it's free local pick up. Not going to ship it. The hub is the DX engineering cast aluminum hub the spreaders fasten into.

 

[Hurricane145]

will most definitely be painting the spreaders before this thing flies. I'm anticipating yearly or so repaints.

Look into marine grade fiberglass paint. It should last longer than most other paint.

I have a Lightning Bolt 5 band quad. I just took it down for a few repairs after 15 years or so. It has fiberglass spreaders and they have a pretty rough finish. They were just really dirty so I used a pressure washer to clean them up and they look almost like new now. They were never painted. There are a few fiberglass threads that have popped up here and there on them but it was kinda like that when new anyway. Looks like they will be good for many more years. All the other parts are still good.

Here is a picture of a spreader half cleaned. It all came off easily. The pressure washer is about 1600 PSI, about the same as at a self car wash.

 

[Crawdad]

Look into marine grade fiberglass paint. It should last longer than most other paint.

I have a Lightning Bolt 5 band quad. I just took it down for a few repairs after 15 years or so. It has fiberglass spreaders and they have a pretty rough finish. They were just really dirty so I used a pressure washer to clean them up and they look almost like new now. They were never painted. There are a few fiberglass threads that have popped up here and there on them but it was kinda like that when new anyway. Looks like they will be good for many more years.

Here is a picture of a spreader half cleaned
View attachment 69358

Thanks much for that info, much appreciated. Hope to be here long enough for them to need replacing.

7 3 sir

 

[Crawdad]

The bamboo I think the author got the poles wet and bent them slowly to form the curve then painted them to hold the shape then installed the wires. My memory isn't like it used to be.
I'm not certain your location but if you want the one I have it's free local pick up. Not going to ship it. The hub is the DX engineering cast aluminum hub the spreaders fasten into.

That DXE hub is a serious design and I thought about homebrewing a hexbeam around one, but I decided to take the easy-antenna way out this time and bought the KIO model instead. It's plug and play, something I'm not used to doing since I usually homebrew, but I ain't getting younger.

7 3