WB4IUY's Random Blog: Antenna work

Sunday, November 12, 2017

Antenna work - 11/12/17

I completed my HF yagi today, for installation on the rebuilt tower. For those who don't know, my tower of 23 years was torn down in a storm in April 2016, destroying all of the 17 antennas that had served me well for all those years. Everything from the vertical that had it's tip at 138' up, right on down to the lowest antennas that were only 30' up. In addition to storm damage to the house and workshop, the tower and antennas system created such a mess that I had to rent a crane / man lift to get it all down from the surrounding trees and untangle / remove the mess of tower that loomed over our home. You can see the system as it was before the storm on my website at www.wb4iuy.net , mouse over the [WB4IUY] in the toolbar at the top, and click on [Antennas] in the dropdown that appears.

Today I completed the feed harness for the driven elements, built and installed a new RF current choke on the boom, and tuned this 6 element Force-12 HF yagi. I got this antenna used for a great price...it's a $1200+ antenna that I otherwise would have never bought, it just needed a little TLC to bring it back to life. It is a trapless design, perfect for operating with high power.

If all holds well, it'll be going up on the tower next weekend, and I'll start the rebuild of the next antenna for installation. I can't wait to get this baby in operation!