{"id":1526,"date":"2012-04-05T21:44:47","date_gmt":"2012-04-06T03:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2013-08-08T18:52:49","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T00:52:49","slug":"lightweight-2m-yagi-sota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/equipment\/lightweight-2m-yagi-sota\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultra-lightweight 2m Yagi for SOTA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Yagi – Dimensions<\/p><\/div>\n

I am always carrying my HT (Yaesu VX-7R) as a backup on my SOTA activations. It saved my butt on two occasions when high winds prevented me from setting up my vertical Buddipole<\/a>. Since high winds are not unusual at higher elevations I was looking for a better antenna compared to the stock rubber-ducky for future activations. I found an antenna I really liked on Youtube,<\/a> created by David\/KD7MNI<\/a> who was inspired by a design by Paul\/KD5IVP<\/a>. Paul even shared his plans online<\/a>. I based my own plans on the info provided by David and Paul and after a week-end it was ready to test. A lightweight arrow-shaft houses the piano-wire for elements nicely but I was not happy with the dangling RG-8x… even wrapping it around the arrow-shaft made it awkward to transport… so I never actually took it to a summit until last week, when I activated Mt. Herman (W\u00d8C\/FR-\u00d863<\/a>) with Steve\/wG\u00d8AT<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Yagi on Mt. Herman (photo by Steve\/wG\u00d8AT)<\/p><\/div>\n

On the summit I had a real problem with my Buddipole coax and had to rely on my 2m 3-element Yagi to be able to claim my points. So… did it work you ask? YES, it sure did… the furthest contact I made was with Ken\/WB9QDL who was in Thornton in his car (~60 miles). Not that the distance is unusual for a 2m contact with 5W but we had the opportunity to compare the signal with Steve’s HT. According to Ken, my signal and audio quality was better than Steve’s HT with a 17″ flexible whip antenna.<\/p>\n

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Remains of a Yagi<\/p><\/div>\n

Good enough for me. I decided to take the antenna on my double-activation of Lily Mtn. & Panorama Pk. to see what it is capable of. Unfortunately it never came to another test. The antenna was strapped to the outside of my backpack. The light-weight arrow-shaft broke apart during my ascent through the forested area to Lily Mountain without me noticing and I lost some of the piano-wires which were stored inside.<\/p>\n

My Conclusion:<\/strong> It seems that the antenna was just too flimsy and not rugged enough for my purpose. Most trails around here start well below the treeline and there is always a part where I have to bush-whack through trees.\u00a0 The arrow shaft is too long to be stored in a backpack and thus needs to be strapped to the outside. Using another container to protect the antenna seems to defeat the purpose of having an ultra-light antenna. I guess it is time to try a tape-measure antenna next\u00a0 :)<\/p>\n

Video of the antenna in action:<\/strong>
\nhttpvh:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TeTrAPNo8tQ<\/p>\n

If you would like to leave questions or comments, please do so through Youtube<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Check <\/a>my other Yagi-Uda construction attempt.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\"ATTENTION\" \n\n!! WARNING !! There are old<\/b> mountaineers, and \nbold<\/b> mountaineers... there are no old-bold mountaineers. \nHiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required - enjoy!\n<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am always carrying my HT (Yaesu VX-7R) as a backup on my SOTA activations. It saved my butt on two occasions when high winds prevented me from setting up my vertical Buddipole. Since high winds are not unusual at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87,45],"tags":[90,25,17,88,7,89,22,94,91,8,18,19,9,24,92,93],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-antenna","category-equipment","tag-3-element-yagi","tag-activation","tag-amateur-radio","tag-antenna-2","tag-ham","tag-homebrew","tag-k0mos","tag-kg5n","tag-mount-herman","tag-mountain-topping","tag-nature","tag-outdoors","tag-sota","tag-summits-on-the-air","tag-w0fr-063","tag-wg0at"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schnizer.com\/SOTAblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}