boy what a differance!

[Ricky]

i bought a 3 element beam, and i talked skip tonight like it was nothing! i tried so hard on the antron, but it did not cut it.

[beebuzzbee]

Yup, if I can have a beam I would put one up in a heart beat but I know my HOA would have a cow.
My house is on a 250' Cliff, no one lives behind me but the HOA still make me take down the Imax that was on my deck,
I can only imagine ....... I Have A Beam

[linx]

A beam is the way to go talking skip! Do you have it vertical? If so, the power is really intense for skip if you have it horizontal. It just sucks talking horizontal locally unless another base setup is talking horizontal. I went beam and will stay that way unless I get out of it all.

[KI4MSJ]

Well, I turned my radio on yesterday and noticed there was alot of activity on 10m coming from the North so, I climbed my tower and turned the beam North. I made alot of contacts in Maine, New Hampshire, Wisconson and Chicago. Once 10m faded I switched over to 11m and made more contacts to Canada and points north. By the way did I mention I was only using 20w off the 897d internal batteries. All my reports were 5/7-5/9. Great day, then I had to mow the lawn before the storm came through

[linx]

Well, I turned my radio on yesterday and noticed there was alot of activity on 10m coming from the North so, I climbed my tower and turned the beam North.

How tall is that tower Scott? No rotor?

[KI4MSJ]

The tower is 30' I got 40' but opted to only use 30' It came with a rotator which is installed but I don't have the control cable yet. I am in the process of getting some now. The tower was only erected temporarely because I an getting ready to go overseas. Before it goes back up the rotator will be taken apart, cleaned and reinstalled. The tower will be sand blasted and repainted.

[Circuit Breaker]

A beam is the way to go talking skip! Do you have it vertical? If so, the power is really intense for skip if you have it horizontal. It just sucks talking horizontal locally unless another base setup is talking horizontal. I went beam and will stay that way unless I get out of it all.

Yep, you're better off installing it vertically...and it won't make much difference on skip because the ionosphere is going to change the polarization anyway...it could be horizontal, or it could be vertical again, by the time it gets to wherever its going.

[drdx]

Yep, a beam can make a huge difference. If you don't plan on using it locally, put it flat. Flat has 2 big benefits: Less wind resistance and if it is flat you can put a vertical above it. If you put a vertical above a vertical beam, the vertical will be directional. It' won't be as directional as the beam, but it will. The vertical sees the vertical elements below and they radiate. Putting the vertical above a horizontal beam utilizes the beam's structure as a ground plane and because the elements are flat, the difference in polarization keeps them from making it directional.

-drdx

[Ricky]

mine is Horizontal. its wont do both polarizations. but if i want to talk locally, i just use my A99 on the roof.

[Midlander]

Yup, if I can have a beam I would put one up in a heart beat but I know my HOA would have a cow.
My house is on a 250' Cliff, no one lives behind me but the HOA still make me take down the Imax that was on my deck,
I can only imagine ....... I Have A Beam

The solution is to put the beam inside your attic and make sure it has room to rotate, that way they cant say anything about it. Or, you could go with a Maco V, as the maco V has the same gain as the maco three element but it's much smaller.

[drdx]

Hey, if you're in the rockies and in the middle, do a fixed beam in the attic. Do a dipole with the legs aiming north and south, giving it east west coverage. Then fab up a parasitic element that can be switched to change the lengths, with a relay, very simple, to make it longer to be a reflector and shorter to be a director, giving you east or west directional choice. -drdx