Antennas, rotators and towers
Since the summer of 2015 I have re-installed, repaired and upgraded several of my antennas after moving back to UK. Antena work is always a "work in progress" with upgrades and changes always in the planning
M60 Strumech mast
Yaesu G2800 rotator with ARCO Controller
4m - Powabeam 4M7N50LY 7 ele
10 to 20m - Optibeam OB9-5 (new October 2020)
30 - EA Antennas loaded rotary dipole
40m - Wire dipole
60m - 1/4 wave sloper with 2 elevated radials
80m - 18m fibreglass pole with wire attached
160m - Toploaded wire T
P60 Strumech mast- 2m EME
Prositel PST2051 rotator with a SPID elevation motor, Green Heron dual controller
2m - Antennas-Amplifiers 4 x 14 ele yagi
Westtower FBP75 - 6m EME
Spid Big RAS EL/AZ rotator. Do not use their mounting spigot. I have a decent one made locally. Using an ARCO controller for Azimuth which is FAR more reliable than the supplied SPID on which looses calibration once a week
4 x 6 ele light weight LFA antennas on a home made stacking frame. We did not need Justin's 100mph survivability in West Suffolk!
I did approach the Canadian Spid representative at Friedrichshafen 2015 with my feedback and he was very dismissive of all my negative comments! Beware!
An upgrade is in the planning stages
Wall mounted MMoCUG steel box mast - 70cm EME
Yaesu G-1000 rotator with a SPID elevation motor, Green Heron dual controller
70cm - Antennas-Amplifiers 4 x 23 ele yagi
RX antenna
An AZiloop - the best RX antena I have tried so far
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
History
(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
17 May 2026