Dr.

Frankenstein's CB Beam
Ra vage the countryside with ten-meter ri! Create your
antenna with refuse from the Citizen 's Band grave yard.

Ro bert Matt hews K"3JOM The 1G-mete r ba nd has al- mete rs o ffe rs a p o ssib le build was a compromise be-
1910 Altavue Road ways been my favorite band c he a p so lut io n : wor kin g tween two of the lead ing d i-
Balr imore MD 21218 for good OX contacts. It has QRP with a converted Citi- rectional antenna s used in
ple nty o f op era t in g sp ace zens Band SS B transce iver. the 11 -meter Citizens Band .
with its 2 MHz of band spec- If you do not o wn o ne , they The se two a ntennas we re
trum. The 'to-meter band is c a n be found at hamfests a t manufactured by the Avanti
one of the best OX bands reasonable prices. Antenna Compa ny: the POL
A fter receiving so ma ny
inq u irie s a nd le tt er s
from nu m ero u s co u nt r ie s
d u ring the peak s u ns pot
cycle. and during low sun-
Living in a highly popu-
lated residential a re a, with
2 a nd the Moonraker 4.
I chose the POL 2 design
throug ho ut the world as king spo t activity it offe rs very television Cha nne ls 2 and 5 for my driven e lement be-
a bout the design and di men- good daytime OX propaga- being watched regularly by ca use of these factors:
sio ns of my 1 0 -m et er an- t ion - provided you have an neighbors, presented a prob-
• It is an actual 1 VI-wave-
te nna, I decided that it was adequate anten na system. lem for me with TVI com-
length antenn a, claiming 5
ti me to w rite an article and If yo u' re a No vice or have plaints whenever I c ranked
dB ga in ove r a VI -wave di-
revea l the fa cts about this jus t up graded to General up the amplifier o n 10 me-
pole.
un ique piece of hardware. class an d have not yet de- ters. Every effort wa s ma de
• The syste m is easily ad-
So, if you enjoy serious 10- cided w hich tra nsce ive r you to tame the TVI whi ch my
justab le with th e ga m ma
meter DXing. read on, would like to purchase, 10 amplifi er c a used , b ut the
rods.
end re sult wa s that my signal
• The POl 2 offers ve rtica l
wa s o ve rpowe ri ng t ha t of
a s we ll a s horizontal polari-
th e tel e visi on statio ns 10·
zation.
cated forty miles away.
• The e nd-to-end length of
Th ink in g o f how t o in-
the e lement is o nly 13 feet.
crease my gai n a nd di rectiv-
ity for OX communications The re flector was of quad
o n 10 meters led me to pu t design similar to that which
the am plifier in the closet is used with both the POL
for a wh ile a nd concentrate a nd Moonraker.
o n a high ly efficient antenna The two d ire ctors used
fo r my to-meter operations . were yagi design as used in
Obvious ly I could n't e rect a the Moonraker antenna. The
monstrous beam o n a sma ll use of qua d di rectors did not
reside ntial lot, so whatever show a ny benefits as fa r a s
antenna I wo uld c hoose to gai n or di rectivity, so the
e rec t would have to ha ve vagi-style directors from the
e ac h element operating to Moonraker were utilized to
its max imum e fficiency. keep anten na weight and
Photo A. The ( 8 to 10-meter beam. The antenna I chose to size to a minimum.
62 73 for Radio Amateurs • September, 1985
 Construction Next, the wire for the ,
Both the Moonraker 4 driven-element assembly
and the PDl 2 booms were must be measured. The wire
used . Assemble the three will have a measurement
Moonraker boom se ct io ns end to end of 437 inches.
together to form a total This will give each side ,
length of 186 inches end to 109.25 inches. Measure this
end. Do not fasten these sec- carefully. Adjust for proper
tions until all elements and tension as before in the re-
the mast mount are in place. flector assembly.
The POL boom section can Now , from the end of the
be joined to the Moonraker boom which was sawed off,
boom with a wooden dowel measure in exactly 87
or a short (two-foot) section inches. Place a mark at this Fig. 1. The booms are joined together with a section of
of 1'jHnch-diameter alumi- point and drill a 1/8-inch dowel.
num tubing. hole in the boom . This will
Sl ide both boom sections be used to anchor the plastic slide on the reflector and the outer elements , label
together over the dowel (or hub of the driven element to align the elements with one element assembly #1
the tube) until they meet. the boom assembly. those of the driven element. and the other assembly #2.
OriI11 /8-inch diameter holes Temporarily slide off the Tighten the hub, but make Next, with a tape measure,
in the ends of the booms; larger 1 Y4 -inch boom sec- sure you have about half an set the element length of di-
drill a total of six holes, three tion from the Moonraker to inch of clearance from the rector #1 t0195 inchestipto
for each boom end. Make allow installation of the hub to the edge of the boom. tip. If you wish to retain the
the holes about 120 degrees driven-element assembly. After both elements are vertical elements, do the
apart and about six inches Now hold up the boom, and aligned, tighten all bolts se- same with the other two ele-
from the seam where both from the end opposite to the curely. Now measure ex- ments on the hub.
booms are joined together. one sawed, slide the assem- actly 26 inches from the If you wish not to have
Refer to Fig. 1. bled driven element onto plastic hub out towards the vertical polarization, then
From the short POL end of the boom, with the globe- front. Place a mark at this assemble the hub with all
the boom assembly, mea- matching section going on point on the boom. Next, four of the 3&-inch elements
sure exactly 36 inches from first. Align the 1/8-inch hole slide on the mast mount but use only the two outer
the end of the boom . Place a in the boom with the hole in from the Moonraker and elements in place for the
mark at this measurement the plastic hub. I secured the center it at the marked horizontal polarization.
with a scribe or marking pen. plastic hub by using a point. Align the mast mount After the tip-to-tip measure-
With a hacksaw, saw off this 1 Y4 x ' /8 sheet-metal screw. with the elements on the ment of 195 inches is made,
It

measured 36-inch piece of Next, tighten the metal hub boom and tighten. tighten the two hose clamps.
boom section and discard it. of the globe section . When Next, assemble the two Next, slide the #1 director
Now your entire boom all is tight, reinstall the Moonraker directors as per assembly onto the boom.
length should be 207 inches larger boom section which the Moonraker instruction Measuring it a distance of 56
end to end . was removed . manual. Before tightening inches from the plastic hub,
Now, from the sawed end, the hose clamps to secure align the #1 director with the
Assemble the quad reflec-
tor arms as per the POL 2 in-
structions. The new length
of wire for the reflector will
PDlZ
R(f l ECTOIl
POll
OR' VER
ur
O,RECTOIl ..,
CIIIECTOR

be a total of 442 inches.

Measure and mark your wire
carefully. This will give each
side 110.5 inches . Before
tightening the hose clamps
on the fiberglass spreaders,
make sure that the quad re-
flector is not bowed due to
over tension .
The POL driven element
I,
- - - " '. - --1 - -...- -.1
is assembled as per the POL
1--- - 56 '. - - -
instruction manual except
for these minor changes:
Measure the outer Yl ·inch
REF LECTOR
aluminum elements from
the flat end in and mark at
'"
40 inches . Slide the outer
800M tXTU'SIO'"
tubing into the SIB-inch inner
tubing to this mark. Measure 1-- BOOM 201110. - - -- - - - - - ---.1
all four elements in this
manner. Fig. 2. Element spacing.
73 for Radfo Amateurs • September,1985 63
driven element and tighten meter at the antenna and one e lse o n the band can with their Q Sl cards. I knew
it secu re ly. signa ling to my friend Cump hea r us w it h our new an - that the antenna was work-
Cardner to key the t ran s- tenna; a fte r al l, isn ' t thi s ing well for me, but I guess I
Assemble director #2 as mitter at low power, the ad- what we' re really concerned rea lly d idn 't realize how
per the instruction manua l.
justment produced a meter about? well others were receiving
The tip-to-tip measurement
reading of 1.1 to 1 on 28,600 me and how inte rested they
of this e le m e n t is 192 .5 MHz . The use of the ga m ma The first station I he ard would be after lea rni ng that
inch e s . Remember , ea ch rods rea lly make s this job a was a CE7. Report was 59, my output wa s only 50
ha lf of an element must be
plea su re . (Cump , by th e not ba d fo r on ly 50 Watts Watts PEP.
the sa me length a s the other
way, hel ped me with t he as- o utp u t. Next I re c ei ve d a
half. Again, you may add the The a n t e n n a is v ery
se m b ly, and also d id t h e ZL1. His report was 53, still
two e lements for vertica l po- broad banded : 28.0 through
ro ugh diagrams for th is arti- not bad for the low wattage
larization if you wish, kee p- cle.) t hat I was ru nning, Next sta- 29.6 MHz . The highe st the
ing in mind that this is only sw r reached was 1 .6 to 1 . An
tion to ca ll was a W7 in Ari-
an option, not a necessity. The shack in sta llatio n amazing thing 1 discovered
zona; the re po rt he gave was
was composed of RC-213/U; also was that the antenna
Next, with a tape mea- 58 and lo ud and clear mod-
this cab le has a veloc ity fac- ulation. had an swr rea d ing of 1.7 to
sure, measure a distan ce of
tor of .66 and is a good q u al- 1 on 21 .2 MHz . The di rectiv-
65 inches out f rom the #1 di-
ity coax ia l cable . Th e Conclusion ity wasn't a s good on 15 me-
rector. Make a mark at this
distance from the sha c k to ters, but it amazed me to
point with a sc ribe. Slide on We ll, a fte r h a v in g my
the top of the towe r was have such a low swr on this
the #2 director assembly , converted CB bea m up for
measured a long with a few band .
align it with director #1, and over a year now, I must say
tighte n it to t he boom a t th e feet for slack. The tota l dis-
that I' m p retty p leased with I hope thatthis article will
tance in coax was made
point m arked . t he re su lts. Not on ly is the an swer a lot of q uestions for
in half-wave m u ltip le s .
antenna working very we ll, tho se of you wishing to build
Adjustments (492 x .66l/f = ha lf wave-
but I am surpr ised when a good beam antenna for 10
length of coax with a veloc-
This completes the con- many o f the hams I ta lk with meters . Anyway, it just goes
ity factor of .66.
st ructio n of the antenna as- begi n as king me q uestions to show that you don't need
sem b ly. Next comes the fun Now that we have mo st of a bo ut th e con struction of a big amplifier to talk where
part, a djusting the swr . Th is the hard work done, it's time my antenna. Many stations, yo u want to-ju st a darn
is not really a big c h o re, to get into the contro l seat especia lly the European s, good a nt e n n a. Cood lu c k
th ough. Afte r pla cing an swr and see just how well everv- se nd qu e st io n na ire s along and happy DXingl .

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64 73 for Ra dio Amateurs· September, 1985