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Antennas, rotators and towers

During the summer of 2015 I have re-installed, repaired and upgraded several of my antennas after moving back to UK.

HF (Yaesu G2800 rotator)

M80 Strumech mast

10 to 20m - Optibeam OB9-5 (new October 2020)

30 - EA Antennas laoded rotary dipole

40m - Wire dipole

60m - 1/4 wave sloper with 2 elevated radials

80m - Delta loop upgraded with new wire

160m - Inverted L

VHF (Yaesu G-1000 rotator)

P60 Strumech mast

4m - Powabeam 4M7N50LY 7 ele

2m - Antennas-Amplifiers 14 ele yagi

6m EME (rotator see below)

Westtower FBP75

Currently using an EAantenna LFA8 ele using an old Yaesu G-1000 rotator

Had 4 x 7 ele LFA antennas on an Innova stacking frame

The Spid big EL/AZ rotator quickly proved to be a liability with poor mechanical design, although the stacking frame was solid it is probably too much for the tower. I did approach the Spid representative at Friedrichshafen 2015 and he was very dismissive of all my negative comments!

We plan to rework the H frame and 7 ele LFAs to just use 2 bayed 8 ele Yagis with elevation

(2013) The UK antenna systems have been downscaled due to lack of use.

The HF beam tower is currently bare. The G-1000 was destroyed in a wind storm 2 years ago. It is being replaced by a Prosistel but in slow time. I am going to replace both HF beams with a single Tennadyne T-10 log-periodic beam when time allows.

Currently I am using a 20m doublet tuned on the HF bands and an trapped Inverted L on 160-80 and 40m, plus a sloping dipole on 5MHz

The 40m tower is about to be hijacked by a major upgrade to the 6m EME antenna system as an 11 ele is "not big enough"!

This is how the antennas were around 2009

20-15-10m - My TH6 DX is a very old "friend". It was far from new when I got in in 1979 but is still going strong. I had worked every DXCC country with this antenna - twice, both on 20 and 15m, but them some new countries were added and I have fallen behind a bit.

30-17-12m - Cushcraft A3WS

40m - Work in progress!! The Cushcraft 40-2CD finally succumbed to a storm in 2008, the driven element insulator broke in half. The 40-2CD, which has now been replaced with a revised model, was probably the most effective 40m antenna in its price class. I now have an Optibeam OB4030 40/30m dual band beam to put up in place of the Cushcraft. Hopefully during the summer (2009 - 2010-2011-2012-2013-2014?)

80m - Full wave delta loop, point upwards. G3AQC wrote an article in RSGB's RadCom magazine about the Delta loop in the 70s and I have been using one ever since. As I wanted to be able to work both SSB and CW with it I feed it with 450 ohm open wire feeder and use a Johnson Viking KW matchbox to tune it. The tuner is older than me and works better too.

160m - I shunt feed the 75ft Westtower that holds the 40m beam. It is a very effective 160m antenna

6m - I use an M-squared 6M7, 7 ele beam. I have another ready to stack when the sunspots rise. Also on another tower is the 4 x 7ele Innova LFA array which we use for EME. ("We" in the correct sense as I share the EME station with G8VR)

4m - Currently using a MoonRaker 5 ele beam but an upgrade is needed

The above are on 3 towers, all crankups, 2 nominally 75ft and the other 60ft. The rotators are a Yaesu G-2800 for the HF tower and a SPID EL/AZ "RAS" for the EME array, the other a Yaesu G-1000

If you are looking for more information on crankup towers like the Strumech Versatower and the Westtower take a lookat GM3WOJ's most excellent web site

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