Homebrewed 270 MHz Yagi

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radiowaves

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Sep 13, 2007
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Hey Group,

Had such good luck with this little 7 element yagi project, I thought I would share it with everyone.

First give everyone a little background.

Recently purchased a Pro 2052 and started monitoring military air, ect... Stumble across Freq of Nature's web page, which lists all ARTCC RCAG Frequencies across the USA. How Awesome!!!
http://freqofnature.net:8080/faa/index.php

The closest RCAG is about 25 miles LOS on 125.2 and 269.4 MHz, I found that the same TX/RX come from both frequencies. My Discone @ 30 feet wouldn't cut it, unless signals were enhanced, so I needed something with a little more gain. Receive from the local RCAG station was way better on 269.4 MHz, so that was my target frequency.

Used this neat yagi program on the net to calculate the yagi’s dimensions: http://vk5dj.mountgambier.org/Yagi/Yagi.html

Put in a target frequency of 270 MHz, selected a non-conductive boom and 5 total director elements. Program did its calculations and gave me a printout of all necessary measurements.

Materials used:
10’ piece of 1’’ plastic conduit (gray)
3 - 1’’ pvc end caps
1 - 1’’ pvc tee
6 - 36’’ (1/8’’) Brass welding rod
2 – 3’’ Hose Clamps
Quick-set JB Weld

After construction, I installed the antenna @ 30 feet on the tower and receive was well over my expectations. I’m able to hear the RCAG 100% of the time, plus I still hear air traffic talking to the Center on 125.2. I’m hearing another RCAG on 281.4 which is further away and a 150 MHz repeater off the back of the yagi @ 20 miles. The antenna is working perfectly and cost under $20 to build. In the future I might upgrade the RG6 running down to the scanner with LMR-400, but so far I don’t have a reason to do it.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at: n0yk at wbsnet.org

Hope this helps anyone needing a boost on 270 MHz.

73,
Chad
N0YK
 

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radiowaves

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Sep 13, 2007
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41
hoser147 said:
Nice Job, do you have photo's of the other side? Hoser


Hoser: Let me know if this is what your looking for, the other side pretty much looks like the side you see. Here is the feed point, simple but seems to work good. Probably water proof it at some point unless I change it to LMR 400.
 

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N1BHH

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Mar 31, 2007
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Jackson Square, East Weymouth, MA.
That looks superb. I have built various beams using 1 inch square mahogany as a boom. One of my friends worked at a boat manufacturer and they would cut large sheets of mahogany to be used as interior trim and shelving. They would cut off the first inch to get the wood edge trued so it could be then cut to specification. I used an SO-239 connector and soldered on #10 AWG solid copper to the center pin and to one of the flange holes, drilled holes large enough to feed the wire straight through the boom, then bent the wire to form the driven element. Then I would cut the reflector and directors to length, from the same #10 wire, drilling holes in the appropriate locations and centered them and put a heavy bead of solder on each side of the boom. They were 3, 4 and 5 elements for the 2 and 1.25 metre ham bands. Worked great for a cheap and dirty antenna, but you outdid me on this. I am glad to see people are actually building stuff instead of buying.
 

radiowaves

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Messages
41
N1BHH said:
That looks superb. I have built various beams using 1 inch square mahogany as a boom. One of my friends worked at a boat manufacturer and they would cut large sheets of mahogany to be used as interior trim and shelving. They would cut off the first inch to get the wood edge trued so it could be then cut to specification. I used an SO-239 connector and soldered on #10 AWG solid copper to the center pin and to one of the flange holes, drilled holes large enough to feed the wire straight through the boom, then bent the wire to form the driven element. Then I would cut the reflector and directors to length, from the same #10 wire, drilling holes in the appropriate locations and centered them and put a heavy bead of solder on each side of the boom. They were 3, 4 and 5 elements for the 2 and 1.25 metre ham bands. Worked great for a cheap and dirty antenna, but you outdid me on this. I am glad to see people are actually building stuff instead of buying.


Thanks!
 

BLAH

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
36
Location
LA area
Great job!
I was thinking of doing this and you have gave me a place to start! I am going to start to make a 470Mhz Yagi today, So I can put it up with my new scanntenna I just ordered.
I cant say it will look as good as yours, but I will give it a try..
I will post a picture and let you know how it does when I am done.
I am off to download the Yagi Calculator..


Thanks!
Blah:lol:

Icom R20
Pro 2006
BCD396T
Old Sony-WaveHawk
Icom Ic-v8
M-Astro Saber 3000xlt that (Now has Fail 02/90 error :( .....)
 

radiowaves

Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Messages
41
BLAH said:
Great job!
I was thinking of doing this and you have gave me a place to start! I am going to start to make a 470Mhz Yagi today, So I can put it up with my new scanntenna I just ordered.
I cant say it will look as good as yours, but I will give it a try..
I will post a picture and let you know how it does when I am done.
I am off to download the Yagi Calculator..


Thanks!
Blah:lol:

Icom R20
Pro 2006
BCD396T
Old Sony-WaveHawk
Icom Ic-v8
M-Astro Saber 3000xlt that (Now has Fail 02/90 error :( .....)

Best of Luck.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mine is working like a champ!

Chad
N0YK
 
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