Antenna's at PJ2GT

Comet 5 band dipole, C-30
For a long, long time I only worked HF with a dipole. When I was still PA3GTY, due to limited space I was forced to use this antenna for many years. I bought a Comet C-30 which worked fine for me on 40 and 80, but was always very "deaf" on the other bands.

New balun for the dipole
Somewhere in December 2004, the SB-221 worked well. Too well. I fried my CLB-30 balun on the dipole. A 'funny fumes' action and of course my own fault. I was forced to build my first home brew balun. With some left over building material I rebuild from an example with very good technical description found on the internet. Let's see if the thick coax I used will enjoy the 2KW's going through. (HI).

Good for a beginner
The dipole has always served me well on the bands it worked on (40/80). 40 Meters is even great with it. Worked some nice calls like VP8KF, Base Marimbio Antarctica, A71EM in Quatar. CU5AM Azores, 7X5JF Algeria, ZL3GS New Zealand, FO5MRE French Polynesia. And that with that little wire!
 
Time to become an adult HAM... the beam
Since I got into the hobby I always wanted a beam. In mid mid-2004 it became time to get an "Adult" antenna and so it went. With many thanks to Geoff Howard (PJ2DX) I got it arranged. Geoff flew back to the US and got the goodies in.
 The A3S beam got in
 The Cushcraft A3S Three Element Beam - 10, 15 & 20 Meters. The A3 World Ranger, has become the A3S with all stainless steel hardware. It's a real powerhouse in small space and lets you work all the pile-ups with confidence. It can handles full power from my linear. I am also looking into adding on the 40 meters with A743 kit.

When Geoff brought the beam in, I still did not have the Hy-Gain HAM IV rotor, but I decided to start putting it up the roof in the first weekend of February 2005. Of course some of the parts needed some adjustment. Cushcraft did forget to check some of the seals on the traps so I had to fill these up with silicone. I did read some reports on the internet that some HAM's did encounter problems with this so to be sure I sealed them all and taped them in.

Mounting the beam
I am very fortunate with a flat area on my roof. Concrete with a large area to walk and a 5 feet high wall. Perfect to mount on. Since I do not have a tower, (yet), I did mount the mast against the wall to carry the rotor and the beam. It is not optimal, with it's 8 feet above the house, but OK..... I have a beam!

Assembly... duh...
Although I have been putting together quite a lot of antenna's my whole life, the HF yagi was new for me. Luckily the instructions were good, (I found only one wrong measurement... oops) But I did make some mistakes and had to take some tubing apart again...
SWR
I followed the instructions in the manual for the A3S exactly as described and it turned out that SWR it is perfectly as promised. I choose to have 1:1 in the middle of the bands since I want to do both SSB and CW. On 10 mtrs the antenna is tuned at around 29.000, at 15 it is 21.250 and on 20 mtrs it is 14.250 but is is very low in the whole band. When I use my Heatkit SB-221 (Official able to put out 2KW) I have to use the tuner on 10 and 15 if I want to use the edges of the band.