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Horizontal Beams - PMR DXing
Topic Started: Tuesday, 10. June 2014, 18:16 (884 Views)
Swizz
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26 Charlie Tango 1885

Looking at the CTX videos on Youtube, it looks like a few are using dipoles instead of standard radios.

Has anyone considered trying horizontally polarised antennas for DXing between one another?

I know a few hams have done so in the past, usually on 2 metres FM but of course with FM convention being for vertical antennas it never went beyond a minority activity.

With horizontal, the signals from all the vertical stations (shops/sprogs/etc/etc) will be weaker, giving distant horizontal stations more of a chance of making contact. Even better with a yagi too. Just a thought for the hilltoppers.
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HillWalker
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26 Charlie Tango 594
The size of a Yagi at PMR frequencies is so small it can be handheld and turned horizontal or vertical as you want. I made one using aluminium elements made from coat hanger wire.Most stations will be vertically polarised as they are using the fixed antenna on their radio.
I spoke to Sid Mike5 using mine, the distance was 56 miles.He had a Yagi at his end.I was using a Baofeng UV-5R and 4 watts.Plans for one can be found online. :pirate:
:) Is that radio supposed to have smoke coming out of it? :)
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Radio Pixie
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26 Charlie Tango 052

Horizontal beams is a good idea. Less potential interference to other users and the other users interfering with PMR DXing.
If omnidirectional antenna is needed there is always the Halo Click for LINK . It's just the details for the smaller halo that's important for 446.

73 from Dave the Pixie 26CT052 - G7OPC - CB & Ham Radioaficionado :)

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Swizz
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26 Charlie Tango 1885

Okay then B)

Will knock something up in the next few weeks & have a play.

Have found a 4 el beam design & re-scaled it for 446. Will follow it up when I have something working.
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Swizz
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26 Charlie Tango 1885

Ok - made a beam to have a go with.

It's a direct connect 4 element yagi resized to 446MHz. It's coax is soldered directly to the radio - about half a metre of RG58 so I can't check the SWR...but on a 0.5w radio it's hardly going to fry anything if its in the ballpark!

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The boom is pvc tube & elements 1/8" aluminium rod. It's a handy enough size to hold by hand on a hilltop, to point & shoot for dx - to at least try and achieve the ambitious distances quoted on the radios packaging :pray:

For anyone interested the dimensions are:

Element Lengths
Reflector 32.6cm
Driven Element 30.1cm (with a small gap in the centre to form a dipole)
1st Director 29.8cm
2nd Director 29.5cm

Spacing from the Reflector...
...to Driven El 20.2cm
...to 1st El 42cm
...to 2nd El 58.6cm


It is directional and has some forward gain - testing with my Eldest nipper in our built up area with a weak signal between us just breaking the squelch, I swapped the Binatone 950 for the 'cheapo radio with Yagi' and was perfectly readable...both vertical & horizontal :shrug:

If anyone with a beam or dipole can see the hills of South East Manchester and fancies a go at horizontal vs vertical then please drop me a PM (but not this Sunday - may be near Ashbourne watching some laid back cycling)
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Cosmic Chris
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What DX have you worked with beam
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Swizz
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26 Charlie Tango 1885

I haven't yet mate - it hasn't left the building! Pmr is quiet from home - need to take it up a hill.
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Swizz
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26 Charlie Tango 1885

Well Chris, you spurred me on to take the dog to my DX spot - a hilltop 6 miles from home.

Binatone 950 to Binatone was again scratchy - Daughter was in the back of the house to weaken the signal. Tried the Yagi which was a slight improvement.

I then started rotating to see how directional it was & got a shock...the signal off the side of the beam was a vast improvement?!?

So in a nutshell it's a big fail :doh:

It needs to go back on the drawing board (or in the bin) but if nothing else, probably just as a dipole which I know some of the CTXers already use, it's a big improvement over the standard antenna and has given a cheap thing an edge over a good quality Binatone 950.

Rather than waste it, think I'll lop the elements off & keep it as a homebase if sorts.
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