SSB – NT1K – Welcome

ARRL Sweepstakes 2015 SSB – Soap Box

Contest season is still going strong for me. I decided to play in Sweepstakes SSB this weekend because my local club is putting in a group effort and wanted to add to the collective.

Getting Ready

After the horrors of getting a late start during WAE RTTY, I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again. Checked the antennas, made sure the software was up to date and pre-recorded my messages into the digital voice keyer (DVK). I also made sure N1MM software was in working order.

My goals for the contest were to get a clean sweep. Never participated in sweeps until this year and I at least want to work all the ARRL sections. I also set a goal of 50,000 or more to help out my club effort.

And we’re off!

Since I wanted a clean sweep, I decided to use assistance from the cluster/network to find those needed callsigns. I started off running search and pounce looking for needed stations. Once I contacted all the needed stations, I just kept tuning around waiting to hear a CQ.

I’ve always heard about the long exchange which is what kept me from participating but doing SS on CW has somewhat prepared me for this. However I didn’t know exactly how people were going to say it. After a dozen or so contacts I got into a groove and started calling CQ.

Born to run

I rarely call CQ because with my station, It’s difficult to maintain a frequency. I am always being pushed out by the big guns. I’ve only ran during the New England QSO party because I’m the wanted station and it’s not really a big contest so real estate is much more available.

Since this contest is for North American operators (US/Canada), I was able to hold a frequency and call CQ. I have a blast when operators line up to make contact with me. Western Massachusetts (WMA) isn’t considered rare since there are a few contesting stations on the air in the area but It was still fun. Some operators were excited they got WMA and were thanking me for a late multiplier.

Thanks to the almighty DVK

I am not a fan of talking to computers on the phone, why should I be a fan of talking to them on the radio? Some people are down right nasty when it comes to people using a Digital Voice Keyer and I can see their points but the DVK is what saves me and makes it more enjoyable. I used it call CQ and used it to help with every other exchange. Even with the help my voice is almost non exisitant after. I couldn’t imaging doing everything with the DVK. I guess I have respect for those ops with over 1000 contacts that are not using a DVK.

CLEAN SWEEP!

I didn’t spend much time on the air on Saturday. I saved my efforts for Sunday morning and afternoon. Honestly I didn’t think I was going to get a clean sweep due to 40/80 being somewhat closed during the day. At around noon I needed 8 sections so I was bent on getting them. I had to fight in a pileups for AK and HI but the last three needed sections were WV, RI and GTA. I would not be able to reach them skywave so I hopped on 40 before it became popular and thankfully WV and RI responded to my calls. I was hearing GTA on others bands but it was just too close and my signal was going over them. I stayed on 40 and sat around for any VE station. Finally around 3pm local I heard someone very loud say GTA. And thankfully they were calling CQ. He responded on my first attempt and jumped for joy

It’s very nice to see all the ARRL sections blue. Never happened before and was quite happy to do all 83 sections.

Trying Something New

I’ve always wanted to record my contests but never wanted to take the extra steps. Steve Cole (GW4BLE) from Wales records his contests and makes his contacts searchable. It’s enjoyable to see how you sound on the other side of the pond. I wanted have the exact same thing but I found people weren’t really forthcoming about the details.

There is a 3rd party application for N1MM+ called “qsorder” which will records the contest and will make seperate MP3’s for each contact. It listens to the UDP stream from N1MM and triggers the buffer to record 22 seconds before and after I hit the button to log the contact.

I wanted to find a way to display them like how GW4BLE does it or even the same as the wtQsoPlayer used in Wintest. I ended up making a directory listing, converted to CSV spreadsheet and modified it to link to the files. It’s 5min of work but after the deadline, I will make it available for others to search in the near future.

Claimed Scores

After making a clean sweep, I shifted my focus onto making as many contacts as possible. I wanted to pass 50k and did so right before I had to leave for other obligations. I ended up with 307 contacts which yielded 50,962 points. I was happy about my results. After looking other claimed results, I guess I did ok.

Lessons learned

I have to look into ways to improve my rates. After looking at the claimed scores form the top of my class in my area, there is no way I would be able to compete unless I moved to a higher location and put up some more aluminum. Either I need to spend more time on the air (have yet to do a contest entirely) or learn how the spin the dial faster, make faster contacts or something.

Thanks for reading,
Jeff (NT1K)

CQWW SSB 2015 Extended SoapBox

CQ World Wide Contest for SSB was just this past weekend. For those who are unaware, it’s basically the largest Phone contest of the year and it’s the un-official kickoff to the contest season. Now that I have a beam, I wanted to play and put an honest effort in making as many contacts as possible. I want to put in a serious effort and help my local contesting club but the real motive is to get all time new DX contacts and increase my DXCC per band counts.

Getting Ready

If you want to do well with any contest, preparation is important. You want to make sure your station and antennas are in working order, you want to make sure all your software is working and up to date and you want to have a good idea of what band to be on and when throughout the contest.

In the weeks prior my CL-33 has not been behaving and I was seeing 7.0SWR across 10, 15, and 20. I am thinking water got into something because it happened right after a bad rain storm. I wanted to get on the roof to clean and reseal all the connections but now there is some mental block about getting on my own roof. Thankfully the SWR returned back to around 1.0 the week of the contest.

Thinking the beam was toast, I revisited my Butternut HF9V that I’ve basically never used. I switched between that and the G5RV using the heathkit SA-2060 tuner I had. I never liked the butternut as the G5RV seemed to out perform it almost every time. I tried adding more radials during the summer and even tried re-tuning without much difference. I’ve been planning to add Inverted V antennas for 80 and 40, I purchase a used B&W Coaxial 5 position switch to replace the 2 position switch that was switching my beam or the tuner. I took the butternut off the SA-2060 and fed it directly to the new switch. There was a major difference to where the Butternut was just as good, if not better than the G5RV.

For this contest I will be using the CL-33, Butternut Vertical and my G5RV dipole.

A couple days before the contest I went to VOACAP to get an idea of what band to be on and when. Since I now have a directional antenna, I have to also think about when and where I need to point it in order to utilize my rates.

Running as SOAB (A) HP

I decided to run SOAB (A) HP which means Single Operator, All band, (A)ssisted, High Power. Depending on the contest, you have a choice which class you want to enter. Sometimes it’s wise to pick a class that the big guns won’t use or one that no one uses. I know for a fact that I won’t win ANY of the classes that I would try out for. Even though I think I have a great station, in this contest it’s menial compared to others in the area. I cared more about DX contacts than points so I wanted to use the amplifier and make use of the spotting network to assist me in making contacts.

Let the games begin!

Contest starts at 00:00z which is 8pm ET. I was able to help out my local club with a VE session and had enough time to get on when the contest starts. I didn’t follow my own advice and my station was not setup for contesting. I had to find and plug in the headset and configure N1MM+ for the new contest. I ended up starting late.

Problems right out of the gate

Soon as I transmitted on 20m, bye bye N1MM. RF is getting into my computer and it was nasty. Things were typing itself and my computer was making restart attempts. I immediately suspected the keyboard. I unplugged the keyboard and sure enough my computer RFI went away. My expensive (to me) DAS mechanical keyboard is not ham radio friendly. I plugged in my backup keyboard and sure enough, windows decided to take forever to install the driver. I ended up using a PS/2 keyboard and had to restart the computer. I ended up starting almost an hour late. This is why you should prepare your station before the contest.

Things are getting better

Once my computer issues were fixed, I was back on the air. 10m was closed for me and 20 and 15m were meh. 40 meters seemed to have all the action so I was fighting the contest with the G5RV and vert. Not a good way to start but at least I am making contacts.

Here is a view of 40m about 2 hours into the contest. I have my SDR taping the IF stage of the K3 and I use it as a pan adapter. It gives me an idea of what the band is like. I can cycle through the bands and stop on the most active one for contacts.

I made as many contacts on 40m as possible. I decided to give 80m a try and wasn’t able to make many contacts. I can hear a lot of stations but even with 500w, they couldn’t hear me. I ended up giving up the fight and went to be around 1am ET (5z).

I ended the night with about 50,000pts. I was sort of bummed out about it and I was thinking that I wasn’t going to break my 300k I made in 2011 before I lost power due to a really bad snow storm.

A New Day

After waking up, getting some much needed food and coffee in the system, I went back to station and thankfully the bands were open. I spent the morning working as many mults and double mults as possible and then circled the bands for contacts. I was depending more on the cluster but as time went on, I started to use the dial.

15 meters seem to be the place for me. I spent a good part of my day on 15 spinning to SA and EU and sometimes out West/North.

Night Time Asia

Up until now, I had a very hard time working ASIA. I almost NEVER hear anything in Asia. I would be lucky to hear Japan every once in awhile but this night was different. Not only did I make Japan contacts, I also made contact with China, Singapore, Asiatic Russia and even heard South Korea. I was a very happy ham radio operator.

Things are looking better!

Even though I walked away to spend some time playing with the kids and doing some work around the house, I crushed my 2011 record. I was now in “contest mode” where that was all I thinking about. Once I started struggling on 40m, I went to bed hoping conditions will stay the same for sunday.

I went to bed with 700,000pts. I now had dreams of making my first ever 1,000,000pts from home.

10 Meters was alive and business was a booming

I missed grayline but after my Sunday Morning coffee and Bagel, I went back on the air to find 10, 15 and 20 booming with activity. 40m was booming but I was hearing mostly the big guns working people that I couldn’t even hear. After clearing out any possible mults I went to work at my rate. I was clicking and spinning as fast as I can. If I couldn’t establish contact in two tries, I moved on unless it was a multiplier or much needed DXCC entity. Western Sahara (S0S) took a good hour to break.

10 meter was just amazing. People were complaining about 10m band conditions a week prior but by looking at the above spectrum, 700Khz were packed with stations. I spent a good part of my day on 10 and 15.

15m open to Japan

Towards the end of the contest, 15 meters opened up to Japan. When everyone was on 40, I was still on 15 working as many Japan Stations as possible. My rates suffered but I was having to much fun working areas I never worked before. I’ve exceeded my goals so now it’s just working mults and needed DX.

I will say that the K3 with the 1.8KHz filter worked like a charm. However the best option for the K3 was the Digital Voice Keyer. I control the DVK using CAT commands through N1MM and it made contesting much easier. I can still talk after the contest!

The fun must come to an end.

I went back to 40m for the last 5min of the contest and watched my pan adapter to see the entire spectrum that was alive with signals fade out to just a few. I am sure the ragchewers and net participants jumped for joy but I was also jumping with joy. It’s done. I can return to life.

Claimed Scores

I ended up with over 1.25 million points. I wanted to stop at 1 million but when I reached it, I had around 890 contacts and I started concentrating at making at least 1,000 contacts. Too bad I wasn’t focusing on countries worked because I would have pushed harder to get 3 or 4 band DXCC instead of putting around towards the end.

It felt great. I’ve broke many personal records and now I’ve set the bar high when it comes to future contests. I also felt like I am finally helping out the Yankee Clipper Contest Club (YCCC) in which I was logging for. I often feel intimidated by the YCCC members due to the massive score submissions and their station. Even though every point counts, 50k or even 100k appears to be small potatoes to them. I know I can run with the best of them on phone, but I don’t have station to prove it. This year was an improvement for sure.

Lessons learned

No matter what I do, I try to walk away with learning something. Even though I participated in many contests, I am still learning and being reminded about things I forgot about or don’t care about. I need to work on antennas for 80, 40 and maybe even 160 meter. The solar cycle is not going to improve and if I want to maintain 1 million points, I need improve my antenna situation.

Due to my property size, I am looking at some options. I think I could get away with a double L antenna for 80/160. However I feel I might end up with inverted V dipoles. I also need to complete my 300′ receive beverage antenna that is looking at Europe. I may even upgrade to a reverse-able beverage so I can hear SA better as well.

I was reminded to make sure my station is in COMPLETE working order. CQ World Wide CW is a month away and I need to make sure my homebrew winkeyer can do the job. I

Overall thoughts

It was fun and thanks for reading my Soapbox. Scores have been submitted to CQ and YCCC and logs have been uploaded to LoTW and Clublog. Now I get to see what LoTW confirmations come through. So far two new DXCC contacts and a ton of band confirmations. Well worth getting on the air.

Jeff (NT1K)

Homebrew 5 Element VHF Yagi

Okay, enough of UHF/GMRS antennas. Now it’s time to step it up (just a little bit) and fabricate a bigger antenna.
Due to material, I decided on a 5 element Yagi built for VHF since all I would have to buy is more 3/8″ round stock. I’ve taken what I learned from the GMRS Yagi and applying it to the design and fabrication of this VHF Antenna. I am writing this article in a way in which I hope newer hams can understand, build and learn about antennas. So please excuse if I go into details about things that you consider simple and “common sense”.

In order to design a Yagi we have to learn what a Yagi is. A Yagi is a Directional antenna made of up elements.

The 3 Major parts which make a yagi are the driven element, reflector and director. When cut and placed at a calculated distance (On a Boom), the elements will cause the RF (Power) to be sent (radiated) or received in whichever direction the antenna is pointing to. In the radio world this is a great because you can basically “Focus” the power and direct it in the direction you want. Whereas a Vertical (Omni-Directional) radiates its energy in a 360 degree pattern (think of throwing a rock in a still lake and watch the ripple pattern in the water.) which will send out your signal “everywhere” but will dissipate quicker.

On the lower frequencies (HF), a Yagi would be the antenna of choice by Hams. Well then how come every ham doesn’t have a Yagi (on HF)? There is a couple of down sides to having a Yagi or Beam antenna (on HF). First off, HF Yagis are huge. In order to use a Yagi/Beam to it’s fullest you would have to install an antenna tower/mast and rotor. HF Yagis are expensive and so is the tower and rotor, so the parts alone could add up to couple thousand dollars. I’ve seen cases where someone moved or is SK (Passed on) and sold their equipment cheap. There are also several other factors that would steer someone away from a Yagi. Those factors could be age, housing restrictions, living in an apartment, permits, handicap, property size, neighbors, and more stuff than I list. However the Yagi I’m building does not take much space and could be transported to be used in events where I am portable. Yagi’s come in many different sizes depending on the frequency and the efficiency of the antenna. The lower the frequency, the larger the antenna. The higher the frequency, the smaller at antenna. The length of the antenna will vary depending on how much efficiency/gain you want. Increasing the length (boom) and adding more director elements will increase the gain/efficiency of the antenna. On the Yagi that I am building, the design is based on the length of the (boom) antenna rather than the gain.

So you want to build a Yagi. To start off your going to have to know what material your going to be using. Most Yagi antennas are built using Aluminum since it’s light and is a great conductor (Well, compared to steel/stainless). There are many different types of aluminum and I would say that 6061-T6 Aluminum would be the best choice for antenna building. The reason is that 6061-T6 is more weather durable and easier to work with compared to other aluminums. The downside of 6061-T6 is when it comes to bending. 6061-T6 tends to crack when bending using a tight radius. Since we’re not bending anything on the yagi we’re building then It won’t matter. If it comes to other designs of yagis that use a Hairpin or folded dipole then I would take the type of aluminum into consideration.

Okay, we’re using Aluminum. What’s next? Now we need to figure the sizes of the material we’re going to use. This all depends on personal preference. For HF Yagis, you’re going to need Tubing ranging from 2″, telescoping in diameter down to 1/2″ because the antenna is going to be big and will need to support the weight of the elements. Since we’re dealing with smaller VHF/UHF antennas, the material doesn’t have to be large. For the antenna that we’re building we will be using 3/8″ (.375″/9.5mm) round solid aluminum and 1″ (1.00″/25.4mm) square tubing to mount the elements to. You can also use 1/4″ solid round aluminum instead of the 3/8″ to save a couple of dollars but realize that it’s easier to damage 1/4″ rod. If you decide to go with 1/4″ round please note that the dimensions and calculations you see in this article will NOT work using 1/4″ rod because 3/8″ rod has more surface area for the signal to travel on and all the calculations are made with 3/8″ In mind. You can change it to work with 1/4″ which I will cover later on.

Now that we have the material and size in mind that we’ll need, we now need to know what frequency we want to transmit on. Since this is a VHF yagi that we’re building, it will most likely be in the 144-148 range. Are you going to use this antenna for sideband (ssb/usb) only, or both ssb and FM (repeater/general operation)? Reason I ask that is if your designing this to be on sideband only, you will only need it to design it to work best over the span from 144.000Mhz to 144.500Mhz whereas FM would need to be designed over the entire band (144.000mMhz to 148.000Mhz). Since we’re building an antenna for the entire 2m band, we going to use 146.000Mhz as the design frequency since it’s directly center of the band and would allow for a somewhat even performance throughout out the band.

Another downfall of the Yagi is that it has a narrow bandwidth.What I mean is that the antenna will work the best over the span anywhere from 100khz to 10mhz depending on the design (Could be more or less). If you start transmitting out of that span, it could create signal loss and high SWR causing the transmitter to step down power to prevent damage (or actually damage older radios). Why build an antenna that is not going to radiate the power going to it? If the antenna is designed and fabricated correctly and you have at least a SWR Meter/Bridge then this should not be an issue.

So now we have everything we need to start designing a Yagi-Udi Antenna. Well… How do you design one? This is a fork in the road and there are many different ways you could design one (too many to list). There are different programs for different types of Yagis and there are different mathematical formulas for different (or the same) types of yagis. The method I am going to use is a Antenna modeling (software) program called 4NEC2. This program is based off the Numerical Electromagnetics Code for modeling antennas. The great thing about 4NEC2 is that you can model almost any antenna and the best part is that its FREE! What this software allows you to do is to design/draw an antenna using X,Y,Z Coordinates and then run the antenna through a simulator to see it’s efficiency, SWR, impedance and many other things that I have yet to look at. Basically it will tell you if your antenna is going to work and how well it will work on or near the frequency you designed it for. Another great thing about 4NEC2 is that it will perform adjustments on your antenna to optimize it for the best results. So if you are somewhat close to a good antenna, the software (if the programed right) will make it even closer. This software however is slightly (or very) difficult to use for a new person in the hobby. I adapted to the design portion of the software because I have knowledge in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting), but I had to do a lot of reading about the electrical properties and how to make the software do what I want. I am not going to dive in depth explaining this software. However, I will show you how I used the software to create the antenna. If you find the software to difficult then skip the section and use the final results in building your antenna.

Before we start using the software, we’re going to need to know what dimensions to input in the software. We can’t just throw random numbers into the software and expect magic to occur and produce the “Perfect” Yagi antenna. The U.S Department of Commerce and the National Bureau Of Standards released a document which helps in Yagi Design. Information based off the manual has lead to the following Dimensions

300 (speed of light in meters)/146.000(mhz) = 2.0547 wavelength or(WL) (in meters). This will be used as reference for the following dimensions.

Length of each element as follows:
Reflector Length = 0.493 X WL=1.01297m (or 39.880″)
Driven Element Length = 0.473 X WL = 0.971873m (or 38.262″)
Director 1 length = 0.440 X WL = 0.904068m (or 35.593″)
Director 2 length = 0.435 X WL = 0.893795m (or 35.188″)
Director 3 length = 0.430 X WL = 0.883521 (or 34.7843″)

Spacing of each elements from the reflector as follows (WL = 2.0547 in meters)

Reflector to Driven element = 0.125 X WL = .256838m (or 10.1117″)
Reflector to Director 1 = 0.250 X WL = .513675m (or 20.223″)
Reflector to Director 2 = 0.500 X WL = 1.02735m (or 40.446″)
Reflector to Director 3 = 0.750 X WL = 1.54103m (or 60.670″)

Now that we have all the dimensions that will put our Yagi in the “Ball Park” of a good VHF Antenna. The software will end up fine tuning the elements and spacing between elements to obtain the best SWR for the giving variables (i.e Element diameter, Boom length and etc).

Open the 4NEC2 and plot the antenna using the dimensions above. At some point in the near future, I will post a video on how I plotted the antenna. If you don’t know how to use 4NEC2 I suggest searching using google for results because that’s how I learned.

Please note that using the “Optimization” will give different results what I came up with. So do not get alarmed or worried. If it was done right then there shouldn’t be any issues to the design that the software gave you. DO NOT START CUTTING ANYTHING!! These dimensions will change!

Here are the Dimensions and spacings from 4NEC2 that I got! (Note that these dimensions will be the ones used for the rest of the article and that they will be different than your results if you decided to use the software)

Spacings (Each from the reflector)
S1 =12.469″
S2 =20.492″
S3 =37.933″
S4 =58.000″

Element lengths
RL =40.495″
DE =38.363″
D1 =36.056″
D2 =36.086″
D3 =34.074″

Now you should have all the Dimensions (lengths) of the elements and the spacing. Now we need to work on the BOOM. The Boom is the tube that we are going to mount the elements on. At this point we have to decide what material, size and length we’re going to use for the boom and how we’re going to mount the elements. I have decided on 1.000″ square aluminum tubing because it’s commonly used and that it’s easier to work with compared to round tubing. The length that we’re going to need is based on the location of your last (furthest away) director.

I also decided to mount the elements by drilling through the boom and using plastic shoulder washers so we can slide the elements through the boom without the elements contacting the boom. At any point we DO NOT WANT THE ELEMENTS TO CONTACT THE BOOM!! Because we’re putting the elements through the boom, the elements will become electrically shorter because of the inductance change. So we would have to increase each element which is called “Boom Correction”.

There is a formula to calculate the “Boom Correction”. In fact, there are many different formulas to calculate the correction so I am going to use the one that I see most on the internet

C= (12.597B) – (114.5B^2)
The C equals the correction, and B equals boom diameter in wavelengths. This formula will work on boom diameters smaller than .055 wavelengths (Smaller than 4-1/2″ boom diameter on VHF and smaller than 1.5″ boom diameter on UHF). So let’s dissect this problem to make it easier.

To find B we’re going to need the wavelength of the frequency (146Mhz) that were going to use in millimeters.
300/146 = 2.0547 meters or 2054.7 millimeters.

Now we need to take the boom diameter in mm (1.0″ = 25.4mm) and divide it by the wavelength (in MM) of 146Mhz
25.4/2054.7 =0 .012362 (B is .012362)

Now we can do the problem
(12.597*0.012362)-(114.5-(0.012362*0.012362))=.138226

Now we take the correction and multiply it by the boom diameter (in MM)
.138226X25.4 = 3.510mm or .138″ is out correction

We now have to ADD .138″ to EACH element. So our NEW element lengths (in inches) are as follows.

RL = 40.633″
DE = 38.501″
D1 = 36.301″
D2 = 36.224″
D3 = 34.212″

At this point we should have all the lengths of the elements, spacing distances from the reflector to each element, boom diameter, boom length and the type of material we’re going to need for fabrication… Right?

We need to go shopping before we build. Here is a list of what we need to build

5ft (60″) of 1X1″ Sq Aluminum tubing (1/16″ Wall/Thick)
16ft (192″) of 3/8″ Round Aluminum Rod

I would suggest that you google for a local “metal supply” shop. I would avoid the big chain stores (like Home Depot, Lowes) or stores that have every type building material under one roof because the markup on material is very high. I was able to purchase 12ft of sq tubing and 24ft (2 12ft lengths) of rod for around US $30. There was enough material to build this antenna and two UHF 3 Element beams.

8pcs – 3/8″ Inside Diameter Plastic Shoulder Washer
6pcs – 3/16″ Inside Diameter Plastic Shoulder Washer
1pcs – 3/8″ Inside Diameter X 3/4″ Diameter X 1-1/2″ Long Plastic Spacer

These Items will be a little tricky to get. If you’re in the US, you can go online and order from a company called McMaster Carr. I have the part numbers listed on the blue prints that I’ve used. However when I put the antenna through the ringer (tests), I will see if I have to change the part numbers to something else. I have been considering using plastic rivets instead of shoulder washers because I am afraid that the adhesive (epoxy) will not hold the plastic shoulder washers to the boom. If you get different washers or insulators, The dimensions will differ from what I have on my blue prints, so please change dimensions accordingly. If you do order through McMaster Carr, They will only sell the washers and spacer in packaged amounts. If I recall the small shoulder washer came in a pack of 100pcs, the larger shoulder washers came in a pack of 50pcs and the Spacers came in a pack of 10. It’s great because I ended up making a bunch of antennas w/o having to make an extra order.

Glue or epoxy.

Anything that you know will bond plastic to metal and will survive the elements (rain, cold, ice, snow, heat, wind). Still a good idea to use even if your using plastic rivets.

6pcs – 9/16″ Long #8-32 Screws

I would suggest using stainless steel screw as it will survive in the elements longer

There are optional things that you buy like Sq caps for the boom and vinyl caps for the ends of the elements for water and safety protection.

There is some more paper work to do (Grrrrr). Now that we have all these neat numbers and material, We should at least have some kind of drawing to help us when it comes to actually cutting, drilling and tapping these parts. I assume that your building the antenna for one or two reasons which are that you either don’t have enough cash to purchase a commercially made (and tunable) Yagi, or that you actually want to learn how these types of antennas work. So let’s take some more time to layout the antenna so we can have something to use when we’re cutting, drilling and tapping.

I am going to use software called “AutoDesk Inventor 2011” which is a 3D design software that is used for CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) purposes. This software will let me make each part in 3D and assemble all the parts to make sure of proper fitment. This software will also let me create Blueprints based on the information I typed into the software. If you can’t get your hands on any type of this software, no worries. You can do the same thing on graph paper.

My Results are posted below. Please note that I’ve included all the information that is needed IN the Blueprint for those who just want to download the prints and fabricate w/o reading this article. However the information listed on the prints (other than the dimensions) have only basic information for experienced fabricators/ antenna builders.

**** INSERT BLUE PRINTS ****
(Still working on them, please check back)

Now that we have all the dimensions and a print, LETS GET FABRICATING!

Here is a list of basic tools that are needed. Most Hams have these tools or can get access to them. Following this list will be a list with the preferred tools that would make the job faster, smoother and more accurate. However the majority of people do not have a lot of the items

Basic Tools Suggested:

Hacksaw
Measuring Tape
Marker
Drill
*Various Drill Bits (Ranging from .125″ to .750″)
8-32 Bottoming Tap (With T Handle)
Bench Vise
Sandpaper (120 grit)
Scratch Awl/Scriber/Etching pen (or anything that has a sharp point that you can easily handle)

Preferred List Of Tools

Metal Chop Saw (With vise)
Vernier Calipers (6″ or bigger)
Automatic Center Punch
Marker
Drill Press (With a vice able to hold SQ and Round tubing/stock)
*Drill Bits (Various to .750″ [or 3/4])
Files or deburring device

* – For those who don’t have .750″ drill bit, depending on where you live, a 3/4″ Drill bit can get expensive. I would suggest either a step bit (still expensive) or a 3/4″ countersink (at 82 degrees). Drill the specified hole up to the biggest bit and then finish it off with the 3/4″ countersink. Since it’s aluminum, it will not damage the countersink and you will be able to counter sinks holes on other projects (DO NOT COUNTERSINK HOLES ON THIS PROJECT!

Lets start off by cutting all the aluminum rods (elements) and tubing (boom) to the correct lengths by using the tape measure. The blueprint posted in this article shows both decimal and fraction to the nearest 32nd of an inch.

(elements shown cut to size with a band saw)

After you cut the elements and boom to length, It’s time to layout the hole pattern on the boom and each element

I used a red pencil to mark the location along the boom. Then I marked the center of each location using a pair of verniers and used a marker to make the center point more visible.

When marking the elements it’s a good idea to mark the center point twice. Once from each end so you know that your exactly on center of the element. With the driven elements, you just need to place a mark at 3/16″ in from only one edge.

Using a drill or drill press with a small (>.125″) drill bit. Drill pilot holes on every center mark on the boom. DO NOT DRILL THROUGH THE BOOM! Only drill through the side you marked unless your using a bridge port mill that has a perfect 90 degree head.

Also drill pilot holes at the marks of each element. Once again, DO NOT DRILL THROUGH THE ELEMENT! You will only want to drill half way through the element. A bit of advice is to measure from the tip of the drill bit 1/4″ up and use the edge of some masking tape to tell you where to stop when drilling. If you feel un-easy about drilling the element, you should have a couple of inches of scrap rod that you can test both drilling and tapping on.

This photo shows pilot hole being drilled into the boom

This photo shows the Pilot Holes drilled in each element

After drilling the pilot holes, time to open the holes according the blue print. With the elements, I suggest using a .120″ (or #31) drill bit as the element could wobble causing the hole to open up a little more. With the boom I would start with opening the holes where the elements slide through first! Then switch to the 3/4″ bit and open up the holes where the driven element slides through. Switch back to the pilot drill bit, insert the plastic spacer that will hold the driven elements and using the two holes on the top of the boom as guides and drill halfway through the plastic spacer. Then open the rest of the holes to the correct size.

The next step is to tap each element with a #8-32 bottoming tap. If you can get your hands on a bottoming tap, you can take a regular tap and break the head off it and grind/file it flat.

This photo shows a element being tapped. Try to make sure your tap is 90 degree and straight.

After everything is cut and drilled and tapped to size. It’s time for assembly. Assembly is pretty stright foward.
Glue/Epoxy all shoulder washers/rivets into place and let dry. The driven elements are going to slide into the plastic round spacer. Make sure that each side of the driven elements does not come in contact with each other. Then slide in the reflector and directors and secure them with the 6-32 screws. When finished I placed more epoxy around the elements (NOT THE DRIVEN ELEMENT) at the point where they meet the boom. I did this because I don’t plan on taking apart the antenna.

Attache your coax to the driven element making sure you don’t have the connections contacting the boom.

You should hopefully have a functional 5el VHF Yagi

Here are some reading I’ve taken with a analyzer that I borrowed.

At 144.42Mhz, I got a 1:1 SWR with an Impedance of 48ohm.

At 146.02Mhz, I got a reading of 1:1 SWR with an impedance of 46ohms

At 147.72Mhz, I got a SWR of 1:1 and an impedance of 44Ohms
These readings were taken in my house with the antenna mounted to a wood broom stick. When I got the antenna into the attic I took another set of readings before I gave the meter back and I saw that a slight change on the values. Can’t wait to get it outside.

If you plan on making your own Yagi, please take ALL SAFETY considerations into effect. Know and respect all the tools you are using and when it comes to installing your Yagi, make sure the antenna with not come in contact with any utility lines.

If you are using the plans from this page, please note that your results may/will vary from what I’ve made. Since I’m new to antenna making, I would not want you to risk any material/money. Please confirm your findings with someone who does know before purchasing or building. These are just my notes on what I did to create an antenna.

Sources Of Information:

Peter P. Viezbicke, National Bureau Of Standards. “Yagi Antenna Design”. U.S Department of Commerce/NBS Tech Note 688 (Dec 1976). PDF (Sept 2011)

G.R Jessob, and R.S. Hewes. “Radio Data Reference Book” (ISBN: 1872309305) Radio Society of Great Britain; 6th edition (November 1995)

Unknown Author (N4UJW?). “Basic Yagi Antenna Design For The Experimenter”. YAGI ANTENNA DESIGN BASICS. Web (Sept 2011)

Martin Steyer (DK7ZB). “DK7ZB Yagi – 144Mhz-Yagis”. DK7ZB Website. Web (Sept 2011)

ARRL, R. Deam Straw. “The ARRL Antenna Book: The Ultimate Reference for Amateur Radio Antennas, Transmission Lines And Propagation.” American Radio Relay Leauge; 21st edition (May 2007)

Peter Knott. “Wire Antenna Modelling with NEC-2”. Antenna Engineer 8/12/2009. PDF (Sept 2011)

Daniel C Lester (KE9SE). “The Effects Of A Conductive Boom On Element Lengths”. VHF-UHF Basics (9/17/2009). Web (Sept 2011)

Guy Fletcher (VK2KU). “Effects of Boom and Element Diameters on Yagi Element Lengths at 144, 432 and1296 MHz”. ARRL QEX Magazine (Jan/Feb 2000).

Software Sources:
Arie Voors . “4NEC2” – Web – (Freeware) Program Used to Design and Simulate Yagi (and other) antennas
Autodesk Corp. “Autodesk Inventor 2011” – Web – (Trial/Edu/Paid) Program used to Design and create blueprints

NEQP/Rants

At the beginning of the month I participated in the New England QSO Party. This is the first contest that I’ve taken a part of to where I submitted logs. I’ve participated in contests by accident. Meaning that I just happened to be on the air when the contest was going on and thought it would be fun to make some contacts for the log book. The reason I wanted to take part fully in the NEQP is that I’m based out of New England and thought it would be fun to see how well I can do in New England considering I rarely hear New England stations. On Saturday night (May 5th), I’ve spent 5 hours planted on one frequency on 40 meters and started calling CQ. I’ve tuned the 950 so I can filter out most of the QRM and I have to say that I had a really fun time. I thought I would be horrible since I am not running with what I consider the big guns (expensive setups, beams, towers). With my 100w rig and a G5RV dipole I thought I did very well to the point where I was getting pileups. I would have never thought there would be a pileup to contact me. May 6th was not as exciting as the bands were dead (well, for me). However I kept on 40 meters and made an additional 50 contacts with brought the total to 256 X a multiplier of 31 = 7,936 points.

In days since, I received many QSL cards with SASE. Please be patient as I am trying to find a good printer, that is decently price for full color QSL cards. Once I receive them, SASE cards will be sent first followed by those who sent cards and finally, those who I promised a card to. I would also like to thank all the stations that contacted me. Also like to thank the NightWatch Net.

Now for a drink

This contest now brings me to my rant. I don’t like ranting because it causes nothing but trouble. This time I don’t care. During the contest I’ve heard a couple of people referring to me as “these contesters” like it’s a bad thing. I’ve also seen write-ups and videos of hams complaining about “Contesters”. I don’t understand what the big deal is. Oh no! you now have to move a couple khzs because someone is contesting on a frequency that you’ve used since 1909. For a hobby that is so-called “Dying”, I wouldn’t spend time complaining about other ham operators that are actually involved in this “Dying” hobby. Now if they just hopped on the frequency that you’re currently talking to your buddy on (or 1-3 khz near) and starting contesting without checking if it’s a clear frequency and/or calling QRZ, then I can understand. It’s happened to me and it’s just plain rude. But if they’re using proper ham etiquette then let the contesters play. I’m sorry, I can’t sit for hours listening to long-winded hams talk about their setup and the weather. It gets real old, real fast. That is just my 2 cents, I could be wrong!

W1AW – Revisited

Having Friday off from work I planned to go back to the ARRL HQ located in Newington CT. This time I took a tour and got to operate W1AW which was exciting. Upon arrival you have to check in with the secretary for either a tour and/or use of W1AW. I choose to take the tour since I’m interested . My tour guide was a very nice gentleman named Dan Arnold (W1CNI) who is a volunteer tour guide. He took me around the ARRL headquaters to different parts and departments of the building.

One area he took me was to the Ham Aid table.

These Ham Aid Go Kits consist of a couple of transceivers to help provide communications to disaster areas. Haiti and Louisiana were just a couple of places that received kits. Behind the partition are kits ready to be sent. It’s great to see that at least something is being sent.

Another area that I was shown was the QSL Department.

Looks sort of like an old style mail room. It’s rose-annes job to sort all the QSL cards that come into the ARRL Headquaters by country destination, box them up and prepare them for shipping all around the world. It’s a nice sight to see that people are still using QSL cards in the electronic age where everything is “E” this and “E” that. I would rather get a QSL card in the mail than a E-QSL card.

The one area I wanted to see inside ARRL headquaters is the lab. However the lab is undergoing renovations and was completely gutted. They hope for completion in early April. So maybe another time I will go back to check out the lab.

Across the parking lot is the Hiram Percy Maxium W1AW building.

(Should have taken a picture of the building… Doi!)

Inside W1AW is some history on the ARRL’s Co-Founder, Hiram Percy Maxim. There is also 3 studios filled with transceivers, D-Star/Echolink desk and a bank of equipment used for transmissions of their bulletins. Licensed Amateurs are allow to use some of the equipment in W1AW. I got to operate 15meters SSB.

Here I am operating 15M at W1AW. It’s a little (just a little) nerve racking operating their equipment. First off, It’s not mine. I didn’t want to hit a wrong switch or change a setting that I was not supposed to. Another thing is that it’s hard to say a different call other than your own. But after a couple of minutes I worked Aruba, Italy and England. I just wish I had the equipment they had.

N1FJ Operating CW at W1AW — Frandy (N1FJ) at W1AW

While at ARRL I ran into four nice people that are members of a club that I recently joined. It’s a small New England world. One of which I took a class that he taught (No, Not grammer class!) on Ham radio back in the late 90’s.

Here is some of their equipment they used in broadcasting. So all of the CW runs and bulletins originate here.

Here is the desk with their D-Star equipment and Echolink setup.

Overall I had a great day and If time allotted, I would have stayed a lot longer and snapped more photos. If your a ARRL member and in the area during the weekday, I would stop in and either visit and/or take a tour.