I'd like to see what antenna everyone here uses for 10 meter dx,and why.
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I'd like to see what antenna everyone here uses for 10 meter dx,and why.
Gap Titan. It's a vertical, and covers a small part of 80 (sort of), 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters. No tuner.
As a vertical, it has a lower angle of radiation, so it works better for "skip".
10 meter dipole, strung in the attic.
A given Imax 2000 CB antenna with homebrew 5 meter radials ( teflon wire with silvered copper wire in it, as used in The European planes) work 10/12/15/17 with that, on 10 this year Japan, Australia, New Sealand, India, Hong Kong, China, all europe and Eurasia, Iceland, North and South America, South africa, Carabeans, Curacao, Suriname, etc, even a few Membershere from the Island.
t wil tune on 20 but there the OCF works better.
I still have a 3 element beam here, but untill i clean out the 2 and 70 beams out of the mast on the roof, no space to put it up.
A vertical works fine, low angle of radiation good for DX.
Homebrew Moxon beam.
http://i815.photobucket.com/albums/z...oxonMedium.jpg
It's up on a mast now, of course.
Solarcon Antron 99. Added a radial for 17/20. Some signals on 20m sound better, others don't. Just depends. With the tuner it tunes up fine. Several years ago I used it on 6m.
There's a little 10m prop right now, anyone care for a go?
Never mind, must have been some sporadic E--I was hearing a European station working split but it's gone now.
One of these days I'm going to have to try and put something vertically-polarized on 10m and see about FM - there's a repeater ~50mi from here, would be cool if I could reach it.
A couple different Hustler verticals:
6BTV with base at 35ft; 4 tuned radials per band.
"Hybrid-BTV" - 10-11/12/15/17M from a modified 4BTV; base at 30ft and 4 tuned radials per band.
The 10-11M radials are stagger-tuned: 1 ea 1/4w electrical length at 26.900, 27.400, 28.300 and 29.300MHz. SWR is less than 2:1 from 26.300 up through the top of 10M, this measured with an MFJ-269 analyzer.
I'm probably going to put some kind of 13-33MHz log periodic up in the next couple years and if I get the right piece of property, a Pro-96S will be going up on some Rohn 55.
I'm on a inverted v dipole now but have been thinking of going vertical.That gap titon looks complicated.the A 99 seems to be pretty popular.I'll have to look up the imax.I'm also working on a moxon with pvc pipe but in an H pattern.Thanks for all the replys so for,anyothers?
If you can find one, a Radio Shack 3-el CB yagi could be cut down and used on 10...easily turned with just a TV antenna rotator. A set of ground mounted, phased verticals would also work if your residence is fairly high in elevation.Quote:
Originally Posted by kk4fpx
Neat design, I might have to try one of those myself. I've done 6M moxons from some scrap 3/4 angle aluminum left over from a work project.Quote:
Originally Posted by KJ6BSO
http://www.n2mh.net/p6250132.jpg
I took some supplies to Field Day one year and built one from scratch on the tailgate of my truck with some of the newer hams. I replaced it a while back with a 3 element Cushcraft but I'm not convinced that the store bought antenna has been any better than my home built antenna.
Thanks. I ended up cutting the Y arms down by two inches each after I took that picture. They were the correct length at the time but the antenna resonated down around 27 MHz and by the time I shortened things up enough to get it to resonate outside the CB bands, the wire would no longer fit around the frame.Quote:
Originally Posted by KC9ECI
If I had it to do over again, I'd use a smaller diameter pipe as well. I used 1-1/2" Schedule 40 PVC thinking it would make it rigid enough that it wouldn't require any extra bracing to keep the boom from sagging. It sagged anyway so it turned out to be a few wasted bucks, as well as some unnecessary weight. It is hell for stout, though.
Nice—I think I'll try building one for six this summer. I could easily stack it on top of the 10m antenna.Quote:
I've done 6M moxons from some scrap 3/4 angle aluminum left over from a work project.
I took some supplies to Field Day one year and built one from scratch on the tailgate of my truck with some of the newer hams. I replaced it a while back with a 3 element Cushcraft but I'm not convinced that the store bought antenna has been any better than my home built antenna.
I've become a fan of Moxons after Gordon, AE6QW, and I built a 20m Moxon out of 1/2" Type M copper for Field Day last year. The thing looked like the aftermath of a boiler explosion but, damn, it worked great.
These are the plans I followed for the 6M: http://www.n2mh.net/moxon.htm
I've wanted to try a 20M moxon for a while. I'll get around to it eventually. I think I have more fun screwing around with antenna projects than I do actually operating.
After tonights pile ups over australia I think I'll forget the vertical and finish my moxon.
I'm just using an inverted V wire dipole cut for 10 meters and it's working great! ..... been working gray line south pacific VK's ZL's etc. without too much problem but it does tell that this sunspot cycle is definately a more challenging one to work with! :yes:
Since we're down here in the extreme southwestern corner of the U.S., the wide main lobe made a Moxon a good choice. With the proper orientation, we could cover almost the entire lower 48 states without a rotor.Quote:
Originally Posted by KC9ECI
I'm not good enough with electronics to do much in the way of serious home brew but I can build an antenna and since the Moxon is the only antenna I have at the moment that exhibits any actual gain, I'd have to say the same thing. That might change as I improve my antenna farm.Quote:
I think I have more fun screwing around with antenna projects than I do actually operating.
Same here. Also I have a homebrew 10m beam. Though, I only work Dx by accident. =PQuote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
I think I'm going to take John's advice and get a CB or 10 meter 3 element beam.I'm going to wait until after our ham fest here in Fort Payne before I buy one.It's on the 9th if anyone here is close enough to make it.
You used to be able to get CB yagis of all makes and models by the truckload - free for the taking - immediately after the "CB boom" ended and people moved on to the next fad. That's how my RadShack directional 10M antenna came to be...someone simply didn't want the thing around for whatever reason and I got the works for hauling it away.Quote:
Originally Posted by kk4fpx
One of the best deals which I can kick myself over NOT taking at the time was for a KLM log-periodic that covered 6-30MHz. Its boom was made of Rohn 25 tower. Mind you, this was a $10,000 antenna in the late 80s and was just a few years old - it was on the ground, in pieces and ready to be stashed 'against the day'.
Asking price? $275... :doh:
Right now I use either my 102' wire or my Hamstick 10m ground plane. My first 10 meter antenna was an Avanti Sigma 5/8 ground plane. I did not modify it, just loosened up the hose clamps and slid the sections together a little bit. yes it was a CB antenna and I should see if my little sister still has it in her garage. I have used multiple dipoles at varying heights. The verticals do very well with DX on ten but a wire will get some a vert will not....
At the moment, I alternate between my Butternut HF6V and a Solarcon A-99. My -99 does not have radials, which I should either acquire or put on it.
I have another HF6 stashed in the garage, along with an HF2 (which, of course, doesn't cover 10) and the remnants of a Mosley 3 element beam.
Now that I have a small tower to put up, the -99 will eventually go away, as the tower will be in close proximity to it. We'll see, that tower raising is a bit down the road yet.
If your A-99 is high enough, it does not need radials. I believe the magic number is 34' above ground OR any structure that the support is attached to, like a building. The radials that come with the ground plane kit is simply 5' long fiberglass coated copper wires and a collar to mount them at a 45 degree angle.
So there's no electrical connection between those counterpoise and the shield side of the coax? I'd have thought that the collar made the connection, but it's not clear.Quote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
I'm sorry. The screw in devices connect to the copper inside the fiberglass. The collar is metal and connects to the metal base of the antenna and the radials. So yes, there is a connection to the shielding of the coaxial cabling.Quote:
Originally Posted by W3WN
the only problem I see with a wire or a vertical ison jam ups you have other stations to contend with,this normal but you also have people with over modulated mic's bleeding over who are several Khz away and turning down RF gain won't help.
Look at phasing the verticals or wire arrays. A so-called "Ninja" beam - made from wires and a couple of relays - can have its pattern reversed at the flip of a switch. Two of these in quadrature would give you all four major directions and wouldn't cost a lot to build.
Old 5/8 wave radio shack GP for CB, trimmed for 10.
In my area (back home) CB antennas are still free for the taking. Verts and beams. In fact I have a lot of tower that I got that way too. TV antenna tower but if you are only going to put up a small amount I find it usable. This is how I have my 20m, 10m, 2m, and 6m beams in the air. Garage mounted TV antenna towers (they may have a name for them...IDK what it is..the cheap square tube ones that come in 10 foot sections.). Anyway, one on each side of the garage.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
Each is at 50 foot or so with some kind of hard, light, flexible aluminum post running from the bottom of the tower to about 15 feet above it. 20m and 10m beams on one and 2m and 6m beams on the other. Each also have an inverted V coming off of them as well as a vert at the top. Works well for me and the only money in vested was that of concrete for base. House brackets and hinge plates cost me nothing to make as my uncle runs a scrap yard.
Point is, I live in an area surrounded with houses owned by former CBers and either they dont want the stuff anymore or the new owners want it gone. This made getting started with antennas and towers a rather cheap venture for me.
I think I'll order this antenna tomorrow.
http://www.copper.com/cart/product_i...7f1ba3585ea42d
Gain figure is a bit exaggerated. "Power Multiplication:20x" is definitely exaggerated.Quote:
Originally Posted by kk4fpx
Typically, a 3-element beam has 7-8 db of gain, at best. That's not even a 10x increase in ERP.
My 15-4CD Skywalker shows about 10 dbd (12.1 dbi) for 4-elements.
It's a perfectly fine choice, but don't believe everything you read about gain specs, especially when it comes to CB antennas.
The problem with gain figures - especially in the case of CB antennas - that they're often stated in dBi (decibels over isotropic) when a more plausible real-world comparison is dBd (decibels over a dipole). It's very difficult (physically speaking) to construct and position a true isotropic radiator, but that doesn't stop sellers from using one as a reference point.
The late, great Albi once told a story about building an isotropic radiator. He said he forgot to attach the feed line before he put it down, and then couldn't find it again.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
I.m aware the gain is over stated.But it's still better than my inverted v.
It will definitely be better than what you're currently using. And there's a couple ways to get coverage from 24-30MHz if you're space limited and also want to use the setup with your CB rig...either by sticking another driven element (parasitically coupled) on the boom, adding a bit of boom to either end, a 12M reflector/director and an 11M director...or just convert the works into a log-periodic. 5 elements properly laid out will net you around 6dBd forward gain and around 16dB F/B ratio across that entire range.Quote:
Originally Posted by kk4fpx
Build one. You'll save bucks, and you'll have the pride of knowing it is something you built. Plenty of plans online.
Here is a nice 2 element: http://www.iw5edi.com/ham-radio/?2-e...meters-band,49
You don't need all that aluminum tubing either. Build it with wire and PVC Pipe for support.
Or how about a 10M Moxon? A great antenna! Cheap and easy! http://www.wb5cxc.com/10mmoxon.html
Building antennas has been one of the things I like best about this hobby.
For Aluminum tubing Texas Towers is a great source: http://www.texastowers.com/aluminum_.htm
Truth. Build your own antenna for the win. Verticals are easy. You can find everything reasonably priced at the local Home Depot or other hardware store. I have used copper, conduit, (yeah that is heavy) and wires with pvc. I have EZNEC and design what I want to build and when I have time,, I build it.Quote:
Originally Posted by KA9MOT
Check for local a scrapyard that specializes in aluminum. There's one here in Commerce City that is amazing.
Replaced busted pieces on my Gap Titan, with good results.