What anntena do you use?comment about her performance.

3SD141 · Dxhunters-Newbie Joined: Aug 27, 2004 Posts: 4

Hello all
I have 5 elements yagi (home made) with 5,90 meters of boom on 12 meters up from the ground...I like this anntena but it is not so much directive , I can make contacts with europe and africa in the same position, so I believe I lose some gain.

Let us know about yours.

Tahnsk to all , best 73.

Alan 3sd141

43LR155 · Dxhunters-Newbie Joined: Feb 05, 2005 Posts: 5

Hi all

I use a 4 element quad. I made the quad myself from all different info from the internet. It is hard to say if the quad is better than a yagi, but what I will say is that - I am happy I spent many hours making it as it has proformed very well. I spent a lot of time designing and making the element mounts as I get a lot of large summer thunder storms with high winds. I also designed the mounts so that they slide a long the boom so I can try different spacing between the elements. I have been using it now for 5 months and have made contacts all around the world. One down side is that it is a big antenna and you need a large to area to assemble it. If anyone is thinking of making one, you will not regret it. If I can help in anyway please let me know

Many Thanks
Dave
43LR155

30KR239 · Site Admin Joined: Aug 10, 2004 Posts: 330

Hi there,
I got a 5 element wide spaced yagi (7.5 meters of boom, 24 ft). It´s not a homemade but a commercial one made and designed by Hy-Gain on late 80s (105CA). I just can say it´s the best yagi I´ve ever owned so far. This topic has bring to me that I´ve got a chance to make a side by side comparision last week between my long john yagi and my 4 elements tribander (Hy-Gain Explorer). You may think this won´t be a ¨fair¨ comparision and that could be true but it has gave me an idea about performance on both antennas.

Installation consist on 2 towers and they´re 50 meters (160 fts) appart. 4 elemts triband with almost 5 meters of boom length is on a self supported tower 10 meters high (35 ft). This antenna works out with its full elements on 10, and with 3 on 15 and 20. Monoband antenna for 11 is on a guyed tower at 8 meters (26 ft). There are no so many metallic objects that could affect radiation patterns around. Guy system on second tower is fully isolated.I made some changes on the triband to added some extra khz on its coverage on 10 meters that allow me to work with this antenna on 11 meters without tuner. 5 elements is perfectly tuned as well.
I´m running hard line low loss coax on all my antennas and both towers and coax lines are grounded so I can honestly say that both antennas are in terms of installation pretty similars.

I did some tests over the last week. Both with low and big signals. With medium prop or with local stations located 50 kms away (30 miles). I can conclude that 5 elements at 8 meters was over the tribander most of the time (at least on 85% of the cases). I heard stations with 2 units of S on my monoband that were hardly unreadables on the triband. This was with signals below 5. When prop came up, the difference between antennas was imperceptible. I didn´t notice any differences with signals from S7 or above by switching one to another antenna. Some of the friends who helped me to make those test reported me no difference on my signal and some others found out a little improvement while using 5 elements.
On the other hand, triband was more quiet than the monoband regarding background noise. Not sure if this could be caused by height over the ground or just by those few less decibels of forward gain. Could be both things.

Another advantage of the monoband is that it has an incredible front to back ratio compared with the triband but I´ll have to keep on testing. 73 and have a pleasant weekend.
30KR239 Fernando
30kr239@dxhunters.com

30KR397 · Site Admin Joined: Jul 21, 2004 Posts: 44

Fernando
1) Which frequencies did you use to make all that testing???

2) There is no way you should compare thos two antennas if you tested on 11 meters. It is like comparing Valentino Rossi´s Yamaha with Pedrosas motorcycle, eventhough they are both motorcycles with an engine and two wheels, they were not designed for the same purpose.

Even more when you monobander has been modified for 11 meters band only. That antenna was originally designed for 10 meters, you made some adjustments to make it better for 11.

Now, your tribander has 4 elements and none of them were designed for 11, they were for 10, 15 and 20 and despite the broath bandwith of the antenna in every band, it will never be as good as a 5 element antenna modified for 11 meters.

Even my 10 elements antenna 5 bands will never perform as good as you 5 El. long boom yagi.

What you should do is comparing you 5 elements monobander with for example a DXSR 5 elements for 11 meters...testing these two antennas will bring you some good conclusions, or test your Explorer 14 with a Cuschraft A4S for example....

Fernando, there is no need to test those two antennas to come up with your conclusions. It is a clear disadvantage for the tribander always (if testing was done in 11 meters as I pressume, because you did not mention it).

In my case I also experienced that Fernando, when I was searching for a Pacific ocean Island, I could not make my contact even with my 10 element antena 5 bands at 13 meter high, I could not copy DX station, and someone else from my area with a 4 elements DXSR for 11 meters copied the DX and got the progressive number.

But when I use my 10 element antenna in other bands, I tell you that my force12 is a machine gun. Laughing

See you Fernando.

30KR397
Carlos

30KR239 · Site Admin Joined: Aug 10, 2004 Posts: 330

Carlos,

I was expecting for a better performance on my long john since the beginning (that´s what I´m keeping both antennas and towers) and to be honest what has surprise me more is my how my triband works on 11. Both are different antennas we agree, but when prop is medium and signals are over 5 there are no many significant differences among them.
Only to mention a greater f/b ratio on the monoband and perhaps more side rejection but I had this on mind before my testings.

I got 1.5 SWR on my triband across entire 11 band and 1.1 on the monoband. We know that a low SWR curve on a certain band doesn´t means that antenna works out well just means that antenna has its impedance matched. On my case I can assure you that both antennas works ok on 11 althought neither of them were designed for that band.

We can compare those bikes that you mentioned obviously, but if a 500cc reached 250 Km/h and a 125cc reached 230 km/h (appart of other advantages of acceleration) and we ride then on a curved circuit....don´t you think we would appreciated any big difference on time between non-pro riders???...
(al menos a mi, lo mismo no me pasaba un vespino... Laughing

)

73 ¨Brother in Law¨
30KR239 Fernando
30kr239@dxhunters.com

30KR397 · Site Admin Joined: Jul 21, 2004 Posts: 44

Fernando
If your 5 element monobander performs as well as the Explorer14 on 11 meters, then my advise is that you should no waste more time with the monobander, call BERRIO and throw it away as aluminum scrap.

I can not see how an antenna designed for other bands can do better than a 5 element monobander. Please explain!! maybe is a new DX technique.

Please compare your monomabder with the MA5V vertical that you have in your garden, maybe the vertical do better than yagi monobander too. hihi!!!

397

30KR239 · Site Admin Joined: Aug 10, 2004 Posts: 330

Carlos,
To come to an end: I HAVEN´T FOUND A REAL BIG DIFFERENCE IN TERMS OF SIGNAL REPORTS ON MY TRIBAND OVER MY MONOBAND WHEN PROP IS GOOD ENOUGH TO KEEP MY SMETER OVER 5 UNITS.
MONOBAND BEATS TRIBAND EVERYTIME I´M HEARING STATIONS BELOW S5 IN AT LEAST 2 UNITS OF SMETER OR EVEN MORE.

That could be my final conclusion. 73s and pleasant sunday!
30KR239 Fernando
30kr239@dxhunters.com

30KR397 · Site Admin Joined: Jul 21, 2004 Posts: 44

good boy...Fernando!!!! Laughing

My conclusion is:

1)You should start using your tribander more than the monobander in the frequencies where the tribander is designed for.
2)Take your exams for class A callsign because 11 meters is going to turn really bad for the next two or three years.
3)Become a man...(in all aspects)jejejeje!!!! Wink

regards

Carlos Twisted Evil

30KR397

45AS010 · Dxhunters-Newbie Joined: Mar 11, 2005 Posts: 18

19AT593 · Dxhunters-Newbie Joined: Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 3

I used and built several antennas. But most satisfied I was with a homemade 6 element log-yagi. I think the performance of the antenna depends on the location. My experiences so far are at:

http://users.castel.nl/~levee01/antenna
_________________
19AT593 Sebastiaan
http://jump.to/sebastiaan

30KR239 · Site Admin Joined: Aug 10, 2004 Posts: 330

Hi Sebastian,
Thanks a lot for sharing your experiences with us. I have seen your web page and it´s pretty interesting. I´ve never heard about log periodic yagi (cell drived) antennas for 11 meters. I have seen some log yagis at some official buildings or military bases due to its wide bandwidth and coverage. As far as I know that could be main advantage of a log-cell yagi over a monoband one. Just wondering if you use your yagi in some other bands appart of 11 ore if you use it only on 11 would be greatly appreciated if you can tell us how it works compare with HB9CV as an example. Thanks for your post on this your web. 73s!
30KR239 Fernando
30kr239@dxhunters.com

19AT593 · Dxhunters-Newbie Joined: Apr 27, 2005 Posts: 3

Hi Fernando and all other readers,

I used the log-yagi mainly for 11 Mtr. But indeed it's possible to build it for use at several bands too. Main advantage is the size and the bandwidth of course but also the gain and front-to-back/front-to-side ratio is extreme. I did not have the possebility to test the antenna on a large enough tower so I think performance was not the best you could get with this antenna on my location. Comparisation with the HB9CV. Well I'm not shure about final DX results, as we are all depending on propagation. I made some contacts to the Pacific, but I think I could do that with the HB9CV as well with the right propagation. But as far as surpression of unwanted signals it is a great antenna. A difference from S9+ on front to S0 in noise on back in test with "local" stations within 50 Km range, that was certainly not possible with the HB9CV. If the direction on DX was not right within 10 degrees it could be the difference between a succesfull QSO or not at all.
Compared to a normal 6 element monoband the size is lot smaller, but I think the performance is almost equal !

73s
_________________
19AT593 Sebastiaan
http://jump.to/sebastiaan

30AT252 · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 9:33 pm Post subject:

Hello radio-friends:
I use the delta loop 5 el.
Not comparation with another antenna at same time, but i'm happy with th funcionality.
Normaly the signals is good around the world also between the pile up's

I bealive for the comparation is necesary make contacts at same time with diferent antennes and same contions, tower, etc.

Gretting from Pepe loop
30 AT 252
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26TRC316 · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 2:31 pm Post subject:

Hi all,

Currently, I'm using a folded dipole half-wave loop for 11m. It's horizontal, has a very small footprint and is very easy and cheap to make. More importantly, it works very well. It is installed indoors in the loft, the four corners being supported by tea-cup hooks screwed into the loft timbers. As it's a balanced antenna, it is fed by a home-made air-cored 1:1 balun.

73, Iain - 26TRC316

30DX010 · Site Admin Joined: Jul 10, 2004 Posts: 253

Here you can see 234SD/0 antenna

_________________
Juan -Webmaster- "ONE PERSON, ONE CALLSIGN"


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