Hex Beam in the Air!

Well with the help of Larry K. we buried 3 ground screws in a triangle shape. Two of them had eyelets that were used as a hinge so that a bar going through the eyelets was clamped to the legs of the tower. The third one had a box like end so that the third leg of the tower would rest on it..

Next make a crank handle to be able to raise and lower the tower by my self. Went to AgriSupply and purchased a boat trailer crank that can lift 800 lbs. Had to do some carpentry to fit it at an angle on the 4″x6″ post of the patio cover. It works well but needs to be as high as possible to have leverage to pick up the tower.

The rotor that Susan picked up at the last hamfest was mounted on a steel plate however there was no hole for the control cables. Longer 2″ bolts with lock washers made a standoff for the cable. Advice: take a picture of the colored control cables so that you connect the right colors to the right positions on the rotor controller as if you forget which positions they are in, you will have to climb the tower to find out the answer later.

Using a tall ladder allowed me to hoist and mount the hex bean onto the rotator pipe. Using “C” clamps, it was firmly attached. I used a lighter pipe but I could see the pipe starting to flex and changed it to a galvanized iron pipe about 10′ long. It does not flex! Attached the coax and control cables to the legs of the tower. I also took two army tent pole “spreader” and cut the round ends off of them and screwed an eyelet to hold the two pieces together. I placed a small piece of wood in between the to parts making a “A” frame and a pulley on the eyelet. Now I have a flag pole or halyard to be able to raise another antenna etc.

Cranking the tower up was a study in physics. The more I put the hook of the belt further up the tower made cranking easier. Once the tower was vertical, I tied a safety line around one leg of the tower and the post. I put a pin in the third leg to lock it to the box end of the third ground screw. I had put two guy cables on the tower and need to fasten it to the deck posts using screw eyes that are adjustable. All this was while we had winds of 15-25 mph and the tower and antenna were fine. I also put two red reflectors on the two arms that are on the forward side of the beam (see night shot at the top).

Testing the beam on 6, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meter bands gave SWR of 1.2 to 1.4 at 30 feet without a tuner. Hooking it up to the radio shows 3dB higher signal strength and the noise floor is about 3dB lower than a multiband vertical (Hustler 5BTV).

I also noted that the Carolina blue paint did seem to hide the beam from the road (a little!).

Now to test it on the CQ WW SSB contest this week end, good luck and see you on the bands.
73 N4PVH.

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Addendum:

CQ WW SSB contest was active. I had an A/B antenna switch where I could compare the 5BTV vertical vs the 6 band Hex beam. No question, the Hex beam could hear more faint signals and could capture the stations of interest about 3 dB better than the vertical. It also had a noise floor about 3 dB down. The two factors made the signals “pop” and be much easier to copy. The directionality of the beam is less than a standard 3 element Yagi with a narrowly focus beam but that is also an advantage as the beam is wider on the Hex beam and more like a flood light than a spot light that cannot hear things just to the side of the beam. You do not need to constantly move the antenna to fine tune the signal.

Here is how I attached the cable to an eyelet screwed into a support beam of the deck. Some features to note on how to attach the cable. There are 3 “U” clamps holding the cable together making the “eye”. After the turnbuckle is tightened to the amount of tension desired, the excess loose end of the cable is threaded through the turnbuckle in a way that does not allow the turnbuckle to unscrew and loosen the cable. I then used a zip tie to hold the loose end. Some would use more “U” clamps for this purpose so that if the buckle fails, the cable is through the anchor point and will still hold. A professional rigger may have issues about this or more comments on this topic and should be consulted when setting up a tower. Hope this is helpful (things I learned from a professional, not me!), 73 Peter.

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