The GM3SEK mains filter

I’ve looked at the GM3SEK mains filter several times but nevertaken it any further. My worst noise at home varies with beam heading on HF so I suspect it is being received by the antenna itself and assume filtering the mains would have no effect. But recently I was testing an antenna on 80m and noticed quite a bit of noise from the Honda EU10i generator I have which wasn’t there (as I remember) some years ago on 80 using the EU20i. So I decided I would build a GM3SEK filter to try to stop the generator noise and as a side effect, could see what happens at home!

The starting point is on Ian’s site here:
https://gm3sek.com/2019/10/11/clean-up-your-shack-2019/

Ian details all the parts with links to vendor’s sites and manufacturers part numbers. I was able to source all the parts needed from CPC and Farnell, and not pay delivery charge (I bought 2 sets of parts because I run the amplifier from a second 240V outlet so would need a 2nd unit if I used them here.)

From Farnell I ordered the below. The 13A lead for the mains input.
Prices include VAT.

Order NumberManufacturer NumberPrice
1304848FN2030-16-06EACH£24.02
FN2030-16-06 FILTER, 16A CHASSIS MOUNT
4156104431177081EACH£16.19
0431177081 SPLIT CORE FERRITE, 375 OHM, 25.15MM
1124373X-150708AEACH£8.70
X-150708A LEAD, 13A, BLACK, 2M

From CPC (also including VAT).

Order NumberManufacturer NumberPrice
EN84544GR17012EACH£10.62
CE-TEK GR17012 IP65 ABS Enclosure – 170x170x75mm
CBBR7352PP01645EACH£0.26
PRO POWER PP01645 Nylon Cable Gland PG-11 Black, Single, IP68
PL15548WP21-01EACH£12.90
BG ELECTRICAL WP21-01 13A 1 Way Outdoor Mains Socket
CB22778PELB0767EACH£15.01
PRO ELEC PELB0767 3183TQ 3 Core Heat-Resistant Mains Cable, 2.50mm, 25A, White, 5m
CN19163CTSOS431/12EACH£1.36
CAMDENBOSS CTSOS431/12 Terminal Strips, 12 Way, 2.5mm, 24A

You’ll notice the 2 Fair-Rite oval cores 2643167851 are not there, that is because I have several in stock already. As I write this these are available from Mouser for £3·77 each here:
https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/Fair-Rite/2643167851

CPC delivered next day, Farnell the day after. Which is interesting as Farnell is the parent company of CPC!

I started off fitting the main box. I used tha samebasic layout as Iam GM3SEK used, why change a winning formula. The chassis mount filter fitted with M3 screws and nylocs. I always use nylocs in general, but especially when plastic is involved as you can be sure of a safe fixing without excessive force.

Next I drilled the hole for the gland, which needed a 19mm hole. Drilling large holes with a twist drill, even going up in steps from a small pilot hole, never works well on plastic boxes. The drill wants to tear out as soon as it breaks through. Far better and faster is a step drill which even deburrs the hole for you with the radius leading to the next size up:
stepdrill for drilling large holes
However, do ensure you mark the hole in the right place, UNLIKE me! Doh!
poorly located hole for gland
The hole is too close to the corner for the nut securing it to sit flat. I need this to be watertight for portable use. I toyed with the idea of scrapping this and using the second box but in the end I bodged it in by removing plastic with the dremel:
poorly located hole bodged up
Managed to get the gland fitted better after the mod:
gland fitted after bodge
Next I stripped the outer from the 2.5mm 3 core. I made shallow slits with a knife both side and peeled back the outer sheath. I used adhesive lined heatshrink to keep the ends together before fully stripping the whole length. I started with 2.5m of cable. Ian says 1.6m but I knew I was needed longer tails than his build.
3 cores heatshrunk together
Once fully stripped I did exactly the same as the instructions, twisted it with the battery drill.

I wound the large split core first then prepared the two oval cores.
I didn’t want to superglue them so I used a strip of double sided tape:
oval cores about to be stuck together

I then used the desktop and a square to align them up nicely to stick them together. This method would work well with superglue too:
square used to align oval cores
Winding the 3 turns through these was a lot easier than the larger core.

Here are the two chokes wound and rulers showing the spare length. 30cm on the input side and 75cm on the output side. So 2m would probably have been plenty. But it’s easier to cut some off than add some on.
extra length left over
Soon I had wired the input cable and the choked cable to the chassis mount filter. I stuck down the 2 oval cores choke with mode double sided tape. The large choke touched the lid so not required:
main box completed
You’ll notice I only have one gland fitted to this box. As this is designed for my portable operating I want it to go between the generator and my extension lead so I am using a single waterproof outlet (the 3rd item from CPC above). This was fitted to the main lid with M4 countersunk and more nylocs and a centre hole for the output cables:
outlet box fitted to main lid
main lid inside view
Before fixing these together I applied a ring of silicon mastic around the 5 holes to keep water out:
outlet box sealing to main lid
Output cable threaded through and lid fixed in place:
output cable to outlet box
Once the outlet socket was wired and fitted it is ready to test:
finished filter with waterproof outlet
The input lead is kept short, just enough to leave the generator and sit the filter box on the ground.

I’ll add my findings to this page when I test it.

TMF-3 based DXcommander style vertical portable antenna

This is a build of a TMF-3 based DXcommander style vertical antenna for portable use because at home I just do not have any space for anything on the lower bands. Also, when I did put up an inverted V once for 40m (hell of a job) it induced so much RF into the house it was not a great plan.

The basics of the DXcommander style verticals are well know, I won’t be going into that. This is focused on making use of my TMF-3 50 foot (15 metres) heavy duty fibreglass push up mast that O bought during lockdown, used for a while to support my lightweight 20m moxon but has been doing nothing since.

This video shows the TMF-3 mast and the guying points I have already made for it (excuse wind noise):

The TMF-3 at 50 foot tall is a beast of a mast and I have not yet fully extended it vertically. The garden was too small to get a decent angle on the guys to push up any higher than about 30 feet. I have added guying points to the mast, one atop the first section to secure it to push the rest up and one just above half way up. But the issue for me using it portable was to be able to anchor the bottom securely to work with the 1st guying point and of course enable connection of radials and radiators. So this is what I came up with:
TMF-3 based DXcommander style vertical base

This video explains the features of the base in more detail (excuse wind noise):

And this video shows a test fitting (excuse wind noise):

This is a push fit top for the very top of the mast that I drew up and 3D printed. Even though the mast is 15m tall it’s still too short for 80m so my plan is to take the wire over the top through this and out to the side at an angle and pegged to the ground via a length of cord.

 

To be continued…..

 

Wire guides for moxon or cobweb

I have had a few emails now from people asking for STL files to print themselves some of the wire guides I have used on my disguised cobweb or my 20m wire moxon. So I have uploaded 3D printed wire guides for moxon or cobweb antennas in various different sizes for free download.

3D printed wire guide shown fitted to fishing pole

I have no idea what size tubes other people are using so I have made a set that covers poles from 7mm diameter up to 25mm diameter in 1mm increments.

Each size should grip about a half mm diameter smaller than design and expand about a half mm bigger diameter.

They are designed for M3 machine screws and I recommend using nyloc nuts so they can be nipped up enough to grip without over tightening.

The wire holes are 3.5mm diameter which is bigger than the tri rated wire I used on my 20m moxon so should be fine for most people. Of course you can easily run a brill through the hole if you are using very thick wire but be aware of making it too weak for such thick wire.

To print orientation below is best for strength and doesn’t need supports. I recommend PETG and print with several walls also for strength. I print mine basically as 100% walls so there isn’t actually any fill as such.

best orientation to 3D print the wire guides

Download the files from the link below

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6680276

If you like them, I’m always up for a coffee…
https://g1ybb.uk/buy-me-a-coffee/

The YBB boom tether system

Like many hams, when there is a lot of wind about outside I have to check on how the mast is doing. One thing I did not like was the way the wind rocks the beam back and forth on the rotator. I figured this cannot be good long term of the gears, especially as they seem to be mostly plastic. (Unverified)
When you have something like a 20m moxon up the play back and forth looks quite dramatic. So here I am sharing my YBB boom tether system idea.

For a couple of years now I have had a small arm attached to the stub mast and I guyed that down but it was very short and even with a lot of tension the boom still moved about in bigger winds. Also was quite a lot of  sideways downforce on the rotator (I don’t have a cage).

So in the design and build of my new 20/15/10m tri-band 2 ele beam I incorporated a tethering system on the boom itself at each end to have more effect and balance the side loading to the rotator.

This has proven to be very successful, keeping the boom practically motionless while the 20m moxon element dances all over the place. So I thought I would share it as an idea for others, especially those with a christmas tree stack of beams. I always retract the mast when not on the air, but I know others also retract their masts when high winds are due, and this could help then.

This is the mast retracted to about gutter level and the beam tethered. The left hand tether point is close to the 20m driven because the balance point of the beam is to the left of the 10m driven so it was a small contribution to try and reduce the imbalance on the mounting point.

triband beam tethered

The tether points are very simple. Some aluminium angle, a square U bolt and a round U bolt. These MUST be stainless. (Trust me I know!)
tether point detailTo hook the rope on these I use a plated steel (must NOT be stainless) clip from screwfix. I then file the head off the gate pin to remove that.
Smith & Locke Karabiner 10 Pack

Then this is what they look like installed:
tether fitted detail

Once fitted they are just tensioned up with sliders as I use on all my guy ropes:
tether rope sliders
Now I know by now you are wondering how on earth I get them on and off?
Well that is quite simple and surprisingly easy. I use a telescopic fishing pole with some neodymium magnets taped to it to both fit them and remove them for winding the mast up:
tether fitting pole
All dead simple stuff but it is really effective.

2 ton arbor press tune-up

This may not seem that radio related but an arbor press is a very useful tool, even if it is not used that often. Most recently I have used it to press in my YBB washers into Stauff clamps for an antenna build. I’m tuning it up in order to use a 5 inch vice based brake press set to do some sheet metal folding, mostly as I don’t actually own a vice to use the brake press set in but also because if I did I would only have a couple of inches of throat to bend whereas the arbor press will give me about 5 inches. These are great tools and not expensive but out of the box they don’t feel or work that great so I decided it needed a simple tune-up.

2 ton arbor press
I actually bought an arbor press because I could get what I really wanted which was a lever press RS (Radio Spares) used to sell. If you have one of these in good condition, I need it!!

RS lever press
I used to have access to one of the RS punches in my previous company and used it to good effect to bend boom supports for my VHF yagi. That was the actual original reason I got the arbor press later, despite working now at a company with several fly presses, I like the control of a lever.

Anyway. You can see from the following video that as supplied they are a bit rough and ready:

Having seen videos on youtube about these already I knew it could use a strip down and clean up. So it was all stripped down and taken outside to clean the swarf from the tapped holes that hadn’t been done when it was made. As I don’t have an airline at home I used a steel tube and blew hard, after first spraying in some WD40 to loosen it and wash some out:

Once all the holes and bolts were cleaned up I used a fine file to smooth off sharp edges and machined faces that weren’t that smooth. The side to side slop adjustment of the ram is just two bolts that nip up onto the side of the ram so I also filed the ends of those smooth. Below is an after and before picture of the two bolts, one filed, one as supplied and fitted:

adjustment bolt filed
The adjustment screws that control the front to back slop act on a small plate but that plate was just guillotined sheet steel and not deburred at all so had a sharp edge on the pressure face so that was all filed smooth and flat too. (You can see that plate on the edge of the video below)

Once all the filing and cleaning up was done I first fitted the lever arm spindle and lubed it up:

I then greased up the 3 sides of the ram and fitted that and the front plate, and then adjusted all the adjustment bolts:

That will do for now, but there is a mod people do where they grind the bottom 2 teeth off the ram which allows you to be able to position the handle in the ideal position for the depth you are pressing. I will also drill and tap some holes for adding fixtures to the arbor press, such as the brake press kit (see below pic).

vice brake press kit

DK7ZB dual band 2m+70cm yagi

This was another Covid lockdown project in 2020 to enable me to do some over the air audio checks with locals and maybe give some points away in contests to the locals (my QTH is very poor for VHF/UHF). I wanted something small I could put in the attic. I figured a simple DK7ZB dual band 2m/70cm yagi in the loft with a single feeder would be ideal.

on this page:
https://www.qsl.net/dk7zb/Duoband/4+5_2m-70cm.htm

Martin DK7ZB describes his design for a single feed dual band yagi with 4 elements on 2m and 5 elements on 70cms on a compact 1m long boom.

I already have my element cutting jig  (see here) so cutting the elements was easy enough as usual. I went for the 8mm elements to make it nice and light.

To assemble it I decided I would 3D print not just the dipole box but also the element mounts themselves. The beauty of this over commonly used mounts like the Stauff clamps (see here) is I could design in a feature to ensure the elements are nice and perpendicular to the boom. I also don’t like drilling my tubular elements. For a start it weakens them and also adds a place for inaccuracies to creep in.

So this was my design for the element mount:
element mount design

A snug fit onto the 20mm square boom and a friction fit for the elements. It was printed on its side so that the layers of the 3D print went around the element as printing as shown it may break off half of the tube pushing the elements in.

The are secured from below as seen here with an M3 bolt screwing into a captive hex recess in the mount:
element mount fixing

I don’t like droopy dipoles on my yagis so I printed a dipole box to house the 50ohm choke that has integral clamps outside the box and also extra support inside the box:
3D printed dipole box

I wanted the dipole box to also align on the boom but did not want to print it with supports as they are messy to clean up after so I used a simple locating spacer with 2 matching fixing holes in the dipole box. The 3rd hole in the spacer is a sighting hole that matches up with the scribed line on the boom for the dipole. This was also used as a drilling jig:
dipole box spacer + drill jig

I used the dipole box spacer/jig to drill all the element fixing holes exactly centre of the boom and on the scribed line and assembly went to plan. I didn’t take photos inside the dipole box on this build but the following image is from a previous build of a 50ohm choke fed DK7ZB design. I hadn’t added the extra internal dipole supports here but I did print the choke former and re-used the design in this build.
dipole box wiring

Before final fitting of the elements I added a coax support guide. I usually use LMR400 as my feeder which is great but not super flexible and I like to take strain relief off the dipole box and N socket. This slips over the boom and supports the coax and also helps you align the N plus so you don’t cross thread it:
coax support guideHere is an end on view showing the coax support perfectly concentric with the N socket and with a radius to match LMR400. When the feeder is fitted I then use a velcro cable strap, the ones with a slide through buckle you can tighten onto:
coax support end viewSo finally we have the finished dual band yagi ready for testing. The boom to mast clamp is another G1YBB design for maximum flexibility and minimal RF footprint when looking along the boom. The guy ring is also G1YBB designed and seen on this link:
dual band yagi up for testing
And how does it look on the antenna analyser? I like making antennas and try to make them precisely because I do NOT like fiddling and adjusting much (wire stuff is OK) so my methodology is to try and follow the design with high level of accuracy and hope results match the design.

144MHz SWR plot:
Dual band yagi 144MHz SWR plot
432MHz SWR plot:
Dual band yagi 432MHz SWR plot
Both are a little high in band especially 2m but the SWR curves are so flat it’s very usable on both. I ended up feeding this yagi in the attic with RG58 as it is easier to route so with the losses in that the radio sees no reflected power as it is mostly used in loss I imagine. However I have made QSOs using this antenna in the loft, fed with RG58 on 23cms using 10W from the IC-9700. I can’t imagine much of that 10W getting to the antenna and what does reach the antenna has to pass through the roof but QSOs have still been made several times.

The YBB Washer

So many commercial and home brew constructors use Stauff type clamps for attaching yagi elements to the boom but I have until now avoided these because I hate the huge bolt holes that are typically at least 6.5mm in diameter which is sloppy even on a grossly overkill M6 bolt. Of course these clamps were not designed for making antennas but are extremely useful as they come in pretty much every tube diameter there is. So after many builds avoiding these clamps I decided to come up with a way to use them that would satisfy my exacting standards. One night instead of being able to sleep I came up with the YBB washer.

Stauff clamp example

Usually instead I have been making my own elements mounts in some way or other but I am building some HF beams and it’s just convenient to use off the shelf Stauff clamps so I decided I needed to do something about this issue. I recently assembled a commercial beam that had a tapped boom so next to no slop bolt to boom but you could move the element side to side about ±6 inches or more at the ends of a 50MHz element. I had to use a square to mount them:

squaring the elements

So I set about as usual pondering (usually when I should be sleeping!) over how I could stop all the hideous play. Another good thing for me about the Stauff clamps is that they provide 3D CAD models for free download so I was able to download some and do some thinking. I prefer to use much smaller bolts like M4 for my antennas which is more than strong enough in a good design. My 2m and 70cms elements are held on with 2x M3 bolts which is also more than strong enough.

The recess in each half for the bolt head according to the 3D model is 12mm diameter, so I decided that a simple solution would be 2 delrin or similar washers 12mm round with a 4mm bore fitted to the half nearest the boom/mounting plate. They are not needed in the top half because the top clamp will self centre onto the element tube:

The YBB washer design

That would do it I decided. I have a very small lathe and I checked I can easily buy rod in 12mm diameter.

G1YBB baby lathe

Next step was to get some Stauff clamps ordered to ensure they matched the 3D models I had. On measuring the bolt head recess they were actually more like 12.4mm (at the top anyway), probably due to needing slight draught for injection moulding. Hmm. Next size rod size was 14mm. I do have the lathe, but I’d rather not turn down enough rod to make dozens of washers. I wanted to just drill and part off. I decided to check the supplier notes on tolerances. Some good news there! as most of these materials are very often turned down, the tolerance was stated as +0.2 to +0.7mm. Good stuff. Let’s get some in. I ended up ordering acetal for its low absorption quality and as it was very cheap!

Once it arrived I did a test fit and the bar fitted a couple of mm deep into the bolt head recess then started getting tight, that draught taper I imagine. Ideal. So it was off to my baby lathe and get to work, first running a 4mm drill up the centre then parting off 5mm lengths:

The YBB washer pair

Next to press them in. I discovered that the 16mm and 12.7mm Stauff clamps had an ever-so-slightly larger bore bolt head recess than the 10mm Stauff did. And coupled with the slight edge burr from parting off (seen in pic above) it would have been impossible to press them in by hand. However, I already have an arbour press that I got for forming bent box section boom supports, so in a couple of seconds they were fitted easily:

pressed in with arbour press

Soon I had a complete set of Stauff clamp pairs with captive washers on one half only:

finished set of clamps pairs

The proof of the pudding is in the eating or something along those lines, so I thought I best test them! The day before I had drilled out the mounting plates for the 2 beams we are making so I clamped one in the drill vice and just fitted two M4 bolts into the holes to see how it worked:

That’ll do, as the Yorkshire based advert says… I am happy now that single clamps on the boom will hold a 50/70MHz element securely and square. And once you get to 2 clamp pairs on a 28MHz element or bigger there should be no play at all.

Many might say that this is all overkill and 1000s of antennas have been made and used very successfully with none of this effort. This is of course true but I like to build ALL my antennas to exacting UHF accuracy including the HF ones. I think attention to detail is worth it and my VHF/UHF contesting results using my home brew antennas makes it worthwhile.

VPA Systems tri-band 10m 6m 4m moxon + yagi test review

As an avid antenna constructor myself this is a bit of an unusual post for me. It comes around as I was planning to build myself a dual 10m and 6m beam based on the DK7ZB design on this page (link). I was already running late as the Es season was well underway and in chatting with the Hereford club members Clive G8LNR said there was a tri band version of the same thing doing nothing I could borrow. It was made by VPA Systems and sold by TelTad on this page (link). This was ideal for me as it would save quite a lot of time, so I leapt at the chance and fetched it to my house to build.

This is a lightweight budget end of the market antenna with a claimed weight of 3kg and costing 193€ but that is ideal for my purposes. I retract my mast to gutter height when not in use and I don’t want heavy antennas on the aluminium mast (I’d love the Optibeam OB6-3M but it’s just too heavy).

Unravelling the bundle gave me this set of parts:
supplied parts kitwhich includes a set of Stauff style element mounts, stainless fittings and a single U bolt for fixing boom to mast.

The first thing of note to me was that all the element mounting holes on the 25mm square boom were tapped holes:
boom tapped holesI must admit I wasn’t feeling very confident about that in terms of mechanical strength but they seemed to tighten down securely.  Note that I did tighten using the short arm of the Allen key to reduce possible over torquing.

The 6m elements are 12mm diameter rather than the 10mm specified in the DK7ZB design. I assume this was done in order to facilitate the joining ferrules used to shorten the shipping length. The corners of the 10m moxon are formed with flattened and drilled ends. The 4m elements were 10mm single piece elements:
element construction
The antenna came with no assembly instructions (from new) and Clive couldn’t remember if it was the lower or higher power version so the first thing to do was examine the choke in the feed box. Here I found the biggest disappointment so far (and worse later on!). The DK7ZB design recommends a 6 turn ferrite common mode choke on 43 core but here I found a simple ugly balun type ‘choke’:
feed box chokeOn the up side the dipole box is a good stiff ABS box and though still only 2 fixings to the boom looks like it shouldn’t droop too much like some driven elements. Also an N-type socket used rather than an SO-239 banana plug socket. The ugly ‘choke’ was made from an RG-188 based Teflon coax so this would be the lower power rated version.

A sort through the Stauff copy clamps and fixings soon revealed which clamps and fixings were for each element and the position of them is fairly self evident so assembly was commenced. As is typical with Stauff style element mounts there is loads of play between the mount and the fixings so I found the square was essential to line them up:
squaring the elements
10m centre parts and 4m elements fitted:
part built
Next up were the 6m elements. On my initial inspection I assumed the 6m elements were meant to slide together on the ferrules and be retained by a centre punch as I noticed one ferrule was centre popped as supplied. But a closer rummage through the fixings bag revealed 4 short self tapping screws. There seemed no other sensible place to use these so I figured they must be to secure the element halves together. In this picture the centre pop by the pink pen was as supplied, the pop on the right is mine:
6m split elements
I then set about drilling pilot holes and screwing the tappers in securely:
drilling 6m elements
6m element screwedThe thin marker pen lines are the edges of the Stauff mount so I didn’t drill in a stupid place!

After fitting the 6m elements it looked to me like there was a design flaw about to hit me. When designing my dipole boxes for my elements in 3D CAD I always fit a model of the feeder into the assembly to ensure the coax will pass any nearby elements. I fetched an LMR400 patch lead and proved myself correct. No way at all was my feeder screwing onto the dipole box!
feeder will not fit
Hmmm. Not great. There is room in the dipole box to mount the N-type higher to avoid this issue without any effect of performance. LMR400 is same size as common RG213, surprised this issue exists. It would be possible to reverse the dipole box but the 4m Stauff holders are the same size and even closer. Poor show.

So what to do. I’d already toyed with the idea of making a separate G3TXQ choke balun box for this as there is not enough room in the dipole box to fit an FT240 toroid but I was keen to press on so thought I wouldn’t bother. But now it would give me the opportunity to utilise a short connecting cable between them to overcome this issue. So I decided that would have to be the way to go. For that I would use RG316 as it is higher rated than RG188 and also because I couldn’t fit my RG142 one into the box I had as RG142 is too stiff! This is my G3TXQ choke on 2x FT240-52 cores:
G1YBB G3TXQ choke
So I then also decided I may as well give Clive a free upgrade and swap out the RG188 for RG316. Bloody good job too! On opening the box again on the bench with my glasses on I spotted this!!
dipole NOT solderedCentre of coax NOT soldered to the dipole half!! Very poor I am sorry to say.

RG188 ugly choke replaced with RG316 version for when I return the loaned antenna to Clive G8LNR:
ugly balun to RG316
With the dipole centre re-fitted I now started to fit the rest of the 10m elements and immediately found another issue not covered by the VPA Systems implementation mechanically. Even fully tightened up, the nut and bolt style jubilee clip (much better than worm drive IMO) could not compress the outer tube enough to grip the inner tube. I could still move it quite easily by hand. The DK7ZB designs do use all metric tube and some of the telescopic joints do have a lot of ‘slop’ to take up. My 6 element 50MHz DK7ZB driven is exactly the same. The dipole ends came with just 2 hacksawed slits (non deburred by the way) which isn’t enough to take up all the slop. You can just see air space above my thin blacker marker pen line and the slit fully compressed together:
10m element wont grip
My only recourse was to dig out the junior hacksaw and add some slits at 90° to those supplied. That was just enough to get a secure grip onto the smaller section though you can see the edges of the now 4 slits are still almost touching:
10m elements now gripping
Another point of interest now. In the previous pictures you could see my marker pen lines for the position of the smaller 10m section. That was marked at my simulated position to slighter lower the resonance point of 10m from the DK7ZB design so I could use it with a better SWR at the digital end but still OK in SSB. The DK7ZB design page recommends adding 150mm to the extended  elements. VPA systems have taken another needless shortcut here.
very little insertion 10m

Bearing in mind the ‘slop’ mentioned above a very short insertion means the smaller sections will hang down needlessly due to the internal play rather than gravity induced flex.
Anyway, moving on, the ends of the 10m moxon are fitted with the supplied bolts. As an aside, during a small brain fart induced by the way I had the two 10m end assemblies laid out together I thought someone had assembled the two reflector ends together and the two driven ends together. So I tried to separate them to correct that. It was NOT happening. The insulator is really firmly fixed into the the ends of the elements. Once I realised I was being stupid we were all good but with the knowledge those ends are NOT coming apart in the wind.
10m corner connections
With all the elements now fitted the G3TXQ common mode choke and linked it to the dipole with an RG142 cable and fitted it to my home brew mast. (Ignore the aluminium angle arm-I moved that to the same side as the boom after the picture was taken):
antenna fitted to mast
Time to wind it up and test it.

I forgot to save any analyser plots of the initial measurements as we were keen to get it working more than anything.
First tested was 10m. I had already simulated the DK7ZB design as mentioned earlier so I had set the 10m section to my calculated width intended to slighter move the SWR dip lower in the band. As it turned out the dip was about 28.4MHz and the antenna was perfectly usable between 28.0 to 29.0 with the worst SWR about 1:1.4.
Next I looked at 6m. It was miles out. I expanded the sweep range and found the best SWR dip at 49.83MHz. I then put the sizes of the 6m elements as supplied into my 4NEC2 model and found the exact same results:
6m SWR as suppliedNow at least I knew I had a known reference point to fix this.

4m was even worse. This was even further out but too high in frequency meaning there was no cutting to be done. I decided that although tri band would be nice my 7610 doesn’t have 4m so I would need to set up the 7300 so for now I would just ditch 4m. We removed the 4m elements and wound the antenna back up to check things hadn’t changed much. 10m resonance changed very slightly, no noticeable effect on 6m, which is encouraging for adding 4m back on at a later date.

I used the simulation to find out how much to shorten the 6m elements by then dug out the hacksaw and cut off exactly 12mm from each end.

On 10m I looked to see how much I needed to move the ends out to get closer to my preferred lower resonance point. Really it was more than 20mm, but as there is so little tube in the joints I figured 20mm would have to do.

We wound the mast back up and the SWR curves we really good, just where I wanted them.

antenna full height on mast

The proof of the pudding is of course, does it work? I had a couple of hours operating on FT8. 6m wasn’t that great though I did get a couple across the pond, my first ever on 6m. I spent more time on 10m and got some decent DX. I have only ever made about 5 QSOs before on 10m with my cobweb so it was good fun. 6m QSOs are orange.
first digital QSOs
The same weekend was the 50MHz R1 contest where I had a few hours operating. I missed the best Es but got a few, and around the UK in very poor conditions locally:
few hours 6m contest

Conclusion.
Whilst I appreciate this antenna is more at the budget end of the market and is nicely lightweight which I favour personally, I must say I am glad I didn’t pay for it myself. The ‘ugly’ balun is a shortcut that might very well be adequate (IF it was actually soldered !!)  and work but the miles off tune 6m and 4m elements cannot be forgiven. It took me minutes in the free 4NEC2 program to prove that the 6m would never work in band. For someone who is less ‘handy’ with making antennas (eg someone likely to buy a ready made antenna…) as it was supplied only 10m was usable and that only if spring tension in the RG188 happened to make contact with the driven element.
It’s a great shame as it’s so nearly there. More attention to detail (at no real extra cost – better slits in the 10m centre parts, move N type up so you can use decent feeder, few more inches insertion on the 10m outer elements, check soldering is soldered etc) and this would be a viable alternative to making your own. For me it was a simple task to adapt what I had to work and saved me some many hours of ordering and making but I do know for less cost I would have an almost equally lightweight version but one where it could take a pigeon sitting on the ends of the 10m moxon.

Some great mast guying tips

Some great mast guying tips……in my humble opinion of course!

I love guy ropes. All masts are just so much safer well guyed in my opinion.

I recently made my own 3 section aluminium winch up and luffing mast for the base station (must detail that one day!) that needed guys for my own peace of mind.  So I wanted some good secure ways of keeping is safely guyed when up and retracted. So the below is what I came up with with some experience in other hobbies and some research. I’m really pleased with it so thought I would share.

Anchors.
The garden is very small and fully paved but does have a 6 feet or so brick wall on two sides and a concrete post on the 3rd that I could use to guy to. So bolting a fixing to the wall was the obvious answer. I’d already bolted some eye rawl bolts in before but they were too small for the snap links I wanted to use and they didn’t fill me with 100% confidence. What came to mind as the perfect solution was bolt on hangers used in climbing walls for clipping the top ropes into. I could then bolt through the bricks and it would be bombproof. They look like this (though I would be using them upside down as our ropes go up not down!):
Petzl coeur hanger stainlessI got stainless ones from Needlesports here (link) for under £3 each as they will be outside 24/7.

Snap Links.
These are similar to karabiners but steel and a lot cheaper! I use ultralight karabiners for my backpacking radio gear but here weight is no issue. These are from Screwfix (link) and are cheap as chips (cheaper-chips are expensive these days!) working out at a quid each.
screwfix snap link

Although these are only zinc plated, I have been very surprised at the resistance to rust. Over a year outside and no signs yet. One thing I will point out is the engaging teeth on the opening gate are very sharp and love to try to snag the rope or your finger, and the gates themselves don’t open that wide. Climbing karabiners are designed specifically to have a good width gate opening, these don’t need to so they don’t. But in this application we only clip the rope in once anyway.

petzl hanger and snap link

With these fitted I attached the 3 guys to the mast, wound it up to full height then tied each guy into the snap link using a figure 8 knot. This does take a while as getting the knots in the right place and the right tension on each guy to keep the mast upright is a bit trial and error but it only requires doing once and you then know the guys will forever be the right length.

Guy ropes.
While we’re at it, there are many ropes you can use of course but I have gone for braid on braid polyester rope as used a lot in yachting etc. It’s quite low stretch and has good strength and should be durable in the sun and rain. I use it on all my guys now, 6mm for my lightweight backpacking guys and 8mm here and for car portable guying. I buy mine from OutdoorXscape (link) as they seem to be good on service etc. Usually I buy white with colour fleck but for this I got solid black to be low key.
braid on braid solid colour rope

Tying off when retracted.
I wanted a way to quickly and easily tie off the guys when the mast was fully retracted as I wanted the guys to take the strain off the wall mount holding the mast up but for it also to be reliable and secure. After some considerable searching I found the perfect solution. The Nite Ize Figure 9 Carabiner Large  (link) turned out to be perfect. The locking off system is very quick and you can also actually set it with a decent tension. It literally takes about 3 seconds to do. I also add a half hitch to stop wind/gravity/other factors trying to release the rope, so even then it’s like 10 seconds per guy rope.
Nite Ize Figure 9 Carabiner LGThese were not cheap at a about a tenner each but they are worth the lavish expense 100%.
This is the basic tie off method which I have used especially when I plan to wind the mast up next day:
figure 9 carabiner in use

The image below is how I typically leave each guy when mast is stowed retracted. You can see the safety half hitch and the spare rope I loop over the snap link. The knot at the bottom of the photo is the excess guy rope I should really cut off as I will never use it. You can also see the now redundant rawl eye bolt. Might be handy one day…

guy rope stowed

Hope this page helps you with some ideas, I have to say again, I really love the Figure 9 karabiners!

3D printers -The new sliced bread

It’s time that the saying about sliced bread was replaced with 3D printers. They are right up there with the internet in ‘how did we manage without it’ in my opinion. For the radio amateur they uses are never ending!

The yagi below is completely assembled with 3D printed parts. Not only that it’s mounted to a 30mm pole with 38mm U bolts using 3D printed reducers and the guy ring has an integral 3D printed plastic bearing.

19 element DK7ZB

Not only that the DK7ZB match coaxes were precision cut on a 3D printed cutting jig.
knife shown in jig

My HF inverted V dipoles and guys are wound up onto 3D printed spools and winders:
80m dipole pole guy winders

all guys ready to roll

I just built a 20m moxon made with loads of 3D printed parts:
kit of parts
Including a custom made for the job dipole centre with strain relief and tie wrap slots for the wires and the choke:
feed point choke
The things you can make are really only limited by your imagination.

Here is a time lapse video of a yagi dipole box being printed:

Ok sales pitch over, you know you NEED one, what now?

Well first choose your printer. I went for the Creality Ender 5 which is at the higher end of the budget printers. Loads to choose from though.
Creality Ender 5. 3D printers - the new sliced bread

To print anything first you need a design. This can often be downloaded from a site such as Thingiverse or you can design your own. To design your own you need 3D CAD software. Don’t panic, it’s not as bad as it sounds. There are many free options you can try like FreeCAD or TinkerCAD etc. I use Solidworks as I am lucky enough to use that for my job. Here is the box from the video in Solidworks:
dipole box 3D designOnce you have your design file you export it as an STL file (downloads from Thingiverse already are STL files).

The STL file then needs to be sliced for the printer to print. That is turning the finished shape into many thin layers, or slices, to make up the final part. Again, software for this can be free. A lot of people use Cura which is a free download.

Here is the box above in Cura ready for slicing. It all sounds complicated but once you have told Cura what printer you are using and what type of filament you have you can often print with the default settings very well.

Here is the 18th layer of printing that would make up this box:
dipole box 18th layer
Once you slice your design you save the output to a card or send it via USB and pass it to the printer and the magic begins.

There is loads of help and advice on the internet for 3D printing but it is a really useful tool for the amateur radio home builder.