Been thinking of a great directional antenna with rather small footprint for my summer QTH. Made very thorough research and narrowed my search to heaxbeam.
So here is the plan which consists of two lines: 1. Cheap build a 20m monoband hexbeam for field trips and activations. 2. Go for a commercially available antenna from Waldi SP7IDX for permanent installation. Plug-n-Play. No troubles. Just chill on the bands.
While line 2 is quite straight forward and only takes time for funding, placing the order and wait for delivery, line 1 is a proper adventure into hardware stores, ropes, hooks, carabiners and all that on top of pvc pipes and fittings for the antenna body.
Here are a few first steps taken:
1 bought a 2,5mm thick aluminum plate for center hub.
2. 25mm dia PVC extra rugged pvc pipes 12 ea – length 2.0 meters. Cut to length to achieve total 3,53m.
3. 40mm dia pvc pipe for center post with the cup and eye bolt to attach radial spreader ropes.
4. 30mm aluminum pipe for center hub, will be cut to 110mm length and attached to aluminum plate with either u-bolts or(hell, lets make it cheap) with ty-raps;)
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Right, adding a photo of a center post and a hub assembled. See in the Gallery.
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The antenna hub and center post are assembled. See picture in the gallery.
Spreader arms are cut to length. Now waiting for aramid rope to be able to test assemble the antenna.
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