The final stage of our 6m Antenna Project was completed earlier this week. I began by gathering all of the hardware and components for the installation and staged them near our tower.

The installation of our new 6m antennas was a big project, and I was fortunate to have Matt Strelow, KC1XX, and Andrew Toth of XX Tower here to do the installation. We had many things go well during this project, and some good luck on a few items where we needed it.

Rearranging Antennas for the 7-Element LFA

The first step in the installation was to rearrange the antennas on the mast on our main tower. We moved our existing 2m yagi up to make space for the new 7-Element LFA yagi and installed it on our mast. We pulled the new LFA yagi about 30 ft above the ground on a tram line to check the SWR and adjusted the driven element before installing it on the mast.

The first bit of luck was that we had enough rotator loop slack for our existing 2m yagi to move it up our mast about 4 ft without making a new feedline.

Removing 6m Elements from SteppIR’s

Our SteppIR yagis had 6m passive elements installed, and my modeling indicated that these elements would upset the pattern and performance of the new 6m yagis we are installing. Matt and Andrew came to the rescue on this one – they used an aluminum ladder rigged, as shown above, to remove the passive elements from both SteppIR yagis without taking them down. Note to our readers – do not try this a home!

Building the 6m Stacks

The next step in the project was to install the eleven 3-element LFA yagis that make up our new 6m stacks. This took some time as we had to work out and adjust mounting heights and the separation between the antennas in the stacks to avoid interference with guy cables, wire antennas, and other components on the tower. Andrew and Matt worked from the top of the tower to avoid climbing around the antennas after they were installed. At the end of the first day, we had the West-facing 3-stack installed on the tower.

The photo above shows the additional stacks facing Europe (on the left) and the south (on the right). With all the antennas installed, we were ready for the Power Dividers, feedlines, and electronics.

Feedlines, Electronics, and Switching

We used 1 5/8″ hardline coax for the main feedline from our shack to the 6m switching and electronics on our tower. I had previously installed conduits running from our tower to the shack, and we were able to get the new 1 5/8″ down the 100 ft conduit from our tower to the shack. The new hardline was added to the conduit (front left), which already had two 7/8″ hardlines in it. This part of the installation went smoothly, which was our next bit of good luck.

Next, Matt installed N connectors on the new hardline. The photo above shows the hardline prep for the connector installation.

The photo above shows the completed connector installation.

The next step was to install the Power Dividers near the middle of each stack and hook up the phasing lines from the antennas. The photo above shows how the Power Dividers are mounted. We also ran 7/8″ hardline coax cables from the 7-element LFA yagi and from the Power Divider for the West stack on the top half of our tower down to the location where the Preamplifier Housing and Remote Antenna Switch is installed.

The final step of the installation was to install the Preamplifier Housing and Remote Antenna Switch near the center of the bottom two stacks and hook all of the components up via LMR-400 coax jumpers.

Our tower has junction boxes installed at the base for interconnecting the many control cables for our antennas and electronics. It was a simple step to hook up the new Preamp Housing and Remote Antenna Switch to get everything working with our microHam control system. These junction points make it easy to rearrange and test our equipment on the towers when needed.

Updates on our VHF Tower

I built a second Preamp Housing for use with the existing 7-element 6m yagi on our VHF and Satellite Tower, and we installed that unit as well.

The junction box on this tower made the final hookup of the second Preamp Housing a snap.

Final Integration

We adjusted the length of the jumpers between the Power Dividers and the Remote Antenna Switch to optimize the SWRs of the stacks and tested all of the electronics on both towers via our microHam system. The stacks and the new 7-element LFA have SWRs at 1.3:1 or lower in the weak signal section of the 6m Band.

With everything connected and checked out, it was finally time to see what our new 6m Antenna System could do!

Initial Contacts

The Taurids Meteor Shower is active right now, so I’ve been making many Meteor Scatter contacts using our new antennas. The PSKreporter snapshot shows where I was heard this morning using MSK144 mode and the West antenna stack.

The background noise levels on the new antennas are between 3 dB and 9 dB, better than my previous 6m antennas were. This makes working weaker stations much easier to do.

We have not had much Es propagation since we finished the project earlier this week. I did catch a marginal Es opening yesterday and made an FT8 contact with CE8EIO in Chile. This contact is about 29,350 km from our QTH here in New England. It is the longest 6m contact I have ever made with South America.

As you can see from the PSKreporter data, I was heard very well at CE8EIO. This is very encouraging. I have been making FT8 contacts with the midwest and the southeast United States using the new antennas as well. Given the very limited Es propagation at this time, I would say that the new antennas are a significant improvement.

More About our Project

Here are some links to other articles in our series about our 6m Antenna Upgrade Project:

• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 1 – Plans for Antenna Enhancements
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 2 – High-Power Power Preamp System
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 3 – microHam Antenna Control System
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 4 – Building Antennas and Prep for Installation

We have completed all the steps in our 6m Antenna Upgrade Project. I look forward to the Winter Es period to see how well everything will perform. I plan to post more information about the performance of our new antennas once we have some better Es openings.

Fred, AB1OC

The post 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 5 – Antenna Installation and Station Integration appeared first on Our HAM Station.

Our new Loop Fed Array (LFA) antennas, phasing lines, and power dividers have arrived from InnoVAntennas. Our plan for this phase of our project includes the following steps:

• Build mounts for the stack Power Dividers
• Design and a mounting and truss system for the 3 Element LFA yagis in our stacks
• Build the first 3-element LFA yagis, test mount it on our Tower, and adjust the SWR
• Build the additional ten 3-element LFA yagis
• Build the 7-element LFA and adjust its SWR

Power Dividers

We are using Power Dividers from InnoVAntennas to construct our three new fixed stacks.

These units are very well made and perform well, but they did not come with a system to mount them on our tower. I decided to fabricate mounting clamps to attach the Power Dividers to the legs of our tower.

The clamps are made using stainless steel U-clamps and 1″ square aluminum tubing.

The mounts worked out quite well, allowing easy access to the connectors on the Power Dividers for attaching coax cables. I made up three sets of clamps to mount the power dividers in our stacks.

3-Element LFA Mounting System

The 3-Element LFA antennas that we are using are a custom variation of InnoVAntennas 3-element LFA design. The antennas are designed to be rear-mounted to a pair of legs on a rotating tower. We are using the antennas on a fixed tower, and we want to be able to adjust the direction they point in. To accomplish this, I decided to fabricate an adjustable system suggested by Matt Strewlow, KC1XX, using a 1/4″ threaded stainless steel rod.

I began by assembling the boom and clamps for one of the 3-element LFA antennas and attaching it to our tower. This allowed me to fabricate and test an adjustable rear clamp to orient the antennas. The clamps and hardware are made from aluminum and stainless steel. The components came from DX Engineering and our local hardware store.

The final step in this part of the project was to install a small eye bolt near the front of the booms and create a simple clamp to attach a boom truss (dacron) rope and a turnbuckle to support the front of the antennas.

Once everything fit and worked properly, I made up 11 sets of mounting hardware to support all of our 3-element LFA yagis.

3-Element LFA Assembly and Test

The next step was to assemble the first 3-Element LFA yagi. These antennas are well-made and go together easily. I assembled the boom, mounting attachments, and the center of the elements in my shop and then moved the antenna outdoors to complete the assembly and final adjustments.

I attached and sealed the phasing lines to the driven elements and checked the SWR with the antenna pointing skyward. Next, I adjusted the length of the driven element loop ends to get each antenna’s SWR where I wanted it.

I mounted the first antenna on the tower to confirm that my mounting system worked as planned and to check the SWR adjustment with the antenna at its installed height above ground.

As you can see from the analyzer image above, the antenna tuned up very well.

The only real problem I encountered was finding enough space to store all 11 antennas after they were assembled and tested. As you can see from the photo above, we had quite an “antenna farm” in our backyard during this part of our project.

7-Element LFA Assembly and Test

The final part of this phase of the project was to assemble the new 7-element LFA yagi. This antenna uses a curved reflector to further improve its pattern and lower its noise temperature.

I had just enough room in our workshop to assemble the antenna’s boom, mast clamp, truss components, and element centers.

I moved the antenna outdoors, where we had more room to complete the final assembly, and attached the feedline. I adjusted the SWR of the antenna with the front elevated skyward. Final SWR and driven element adjustments were made with the antenna suspended about 30 ft above the ground on a tram line.

Next Steps

The final step in our preparations was to run control cables from our shack to the junction box on our towers to enable our microHam system to control the remote Preamp Housing and Antenna Switch.

The next step in our project will be to install everything on our towers and integrate all the antennas and components into our station.

We’ll continue to post more articles in this series as our project proceeds. Here are some links to other articles in our series about our 6m Antenna Upgrade Project:

• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 1 – Plans for Antenna Enhancements
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 2 – High-Power Power Preamp System
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 3 – microHam Antenna Control System
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 5 – Antenna Installation and Station Integration

With all of our preparations complete, we are ready to install our new antennas on our tower.

Fred, AB1OC

The post 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 4 – Building Antennas and Prep for Installation appeared first on Our HAM Station.

The next step in our project is to configure our microHam station management system to support the new antennas and other components in our 6m antenna project. Each radio in our station (we have five that are 6m capable) has a microHam Station Master Deluxe antenna controller that is used to select and control all of our antennas. These units use the band selection and frequency data from their associated Transceivers to present a set of antenna choices and associated rotator, LNA, amplifier, and other controls to the user.

We are adding the following components to our 6m antenna farm that will need to be controlled by our microHam system:

• A 7-element LFA Antenna on our main tower
• Three stacks of 3-Element LFAs on our main tower
• A microHam remote TEN SWITCH antenna switch to select one of the above antennas
• Two Premamp Housings – one shared unit between the antennas above on our main tower and a second housing that will be added to our existing 7-element antenna on our VHF tower

Any of these antennas and their associated Preamp Housings can be used by any of the six Transceivers in our station. There are also two Elecraft KPA-1500 1500w amplifiers (one is shared) that operate on 6m and can be used by three of the five Transceivers in our setup. In this article, I will cover the configuration of our microHam system to support all of the new elements.

Remote Antenna Switching

I choose a microHam TEN SWITCH to handle switching between the new 7-Element LFA and the 6m Antenna Stacks that we will be installing. This switch is can be mounted outdoors on our tower and has good SWR, power handling, and loss performance at 50 MHz. I also chose the option to have N-connectors installed on our TEN SWITCH.

Control Interface Installation

The first step in this part of our project was to install two new microHam Control Boxes to control the new remote antenna switch and the two 6m Preamp Housings. These control boxes are connected to a control bus which allows the Station Master Deluxe antenna controllers associated with our transceivers to control all of our equipment and antennas. The microHam TEN SWITCH that we are using requires ten 12 Vdc control lines to select one of its ten antenna inputs. Each of the two 6m Preamp Housings requires a combination of two 28 Vdc control lines to manage its relays and a 13.8 Vdc line to power its LNA. The microHam Relay 10 Control Box is a good choice for controlling the antenna switch, and a single microHam Relay 6 Control Box can be configured to control the two Preamp Housings. I installed the two new control boxes and a DIN Rail Terminal Block for ground fan out on an existing section of DIN rail in our shack. Finally, I extended the microHam control bus to the new units and connected the control boxes to the 13.8 Vdc and 28 Vdc power systems in our shack, and set the addresses of the two new control boxes.

Next, we updated the firmware in the new Control Boxes. We configured their relays into groups for interfacing to the remote microHam TEN SWITCH and the components in the 6m Preamp Housings.

New Antenna and Remote Switch Configuration

The next step was to define “RF Boxes” in the microHam program for the 7-Element LFA, three fixed-direction 3-Element LFA Antenna Stacks, and the two 6m Preamp Housings that we are going to be installing on our towers.

With this done, we created an additional RF box for the microHam TEN SWITCH that will be located on our main tower. The image above shows how the switch is configured in the microHAM system. We also needed to associate the Relay 10 control box with the switch to enable the microHam system to control it.

6m Preamp Housing Configuration

The next step was to configure our 6m Preamp Housings. The image above shows the configuration of the shared housing installed on our main tower behind the microHAM TEN SWITCH.

The shared Preamp housing will be connected to one of the inputs on our antenna switching matrix shown above.

This arrangement allows us to use the 6m LNA in the housing with any of the 3-Element LFA antenna stacks or the 7-Element LFA antenna we are installing on this tower. One of the features of the microHam system is that it can understand and correctly sequence shared devices like LNAs, amplifiers, and other active RF components.

LNA Controls

The image above shows the configuration for the LNA control button that will appear on our SMDs. The configuration above creates a button and display to turn the LNA on or off when an associated button on one SMDs is pressed. This control will appear on the SMDs for any radio using one of the associated 6m antennas.

LNA and PTT Sequencing

We also need to configure a sequencing element for each of our 6m Preamp Housings. This ensures that the Push To Talk (PTT) lines and transceiver inhibit lines are properly sequenced for the transceivers, amplifiers, and relays in the Preamp Housing that is part of a path to a selected antenna. The microHam system automatically applies the appropriate timing and sequencing rules to all of the RF elements in the path based on the sequencer settings shown above. Configuring the sequencer also involved associating the appropriate relay control units on the newly installed Relay 6 Control Box with the elements in the sequencer timing diagram above. One item to note here is the 20 – 30 ms tail on the sequencing of the Preamp Housing relays when going from Transmit to Receive. This is done to allow extra time for any stored RF energy in the feedlines during high-power Tx to dissipate before bringing the LNA back into the feedline system.

We also added our second 6m Preamp Housing to the RF path for our existing 7-Element M2 Antenna on our VHF Tower and configured it similarly.

Virtual Rotator for Fixed Antenna Stacks

The microHam system has a Virtual Rotator feature which is a great way to control selecting between fixed stacks of antennas of the type we are installing. The image above shows the Virtual Rotator we configured for our 3-Element LFA stacks. The Virtual Rotator becomes an additional antenna choice that accepts a direction in the same way that a conventional rotator does. The microHam system figures out which of the available stacks would best match any heading selected and automatically switches the antenna path to the stack that best matches the chosen heading. This capability will be a great tool in VHF contests when we are working multiplier grids on 6m.

Final Testing

With all the configuration work done, I downloaded the final microHam program to all of our Control Boxes and SMDs and did some more testing. I connected one of our 6m Preamp Housings to the newly installed Relay 6 Control Box and tested the operation with our Transceivers. Everything worked as expected.

I also used the microHam Control App (shown above) to test the various combinations of 6m antenna selections and configured options. The image above shows the selection of the new 7-Element LFA we are adding. Note the availability of controls for the LNA in the shared Preamp Housing and the controls for pointing the antenna via the associated rotator.

The image above shows the selections and controls for the 6m Antenna Stacks. The Virtual Rotator choice (STK-VR) is selected in this example. Each SMD has a control knob that can be turned to any heading. When the heading for the STK-VR antenna choice is changed, the system automatically chooses the stack that most closely matches the chosen direction. Choices are also available to choose any of the three stacks directly (ex. EU-STK for the LFA stack facing Europe).

Another nice feature of the microHam system is its ability to use different antennas for Transmit and Receive. The example above shows a setup that uses two different antennas for Tx and Tx.

As you can probably tell, the microHam Station Master Deluxe (SMD) system provides many features for controlling complex antenna arrangements and shared equipment. You can learn more about the microHam SMD system and what it can do here. You can learn more about the programming and operation of the SMD components via the SMD manual.

Next Steps

We’ll continue to post more articles in this series as our project proceeds. Here are some links to other articles in our series about our 6m Antenna Upgrade Project:

• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 1 – Plans for Antenna Enhancements
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 2 – High-Power Power Preamp System
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 4 – Building Antennas and Prep for Installation
• 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 5 – Antenna Installation and Station Integration

Our new LFA antennas and supporting equipment have arrived. The next step in our project will be assembling them and creating an adjustable mounting system for the 3-Element LFA antennas in our stacks.

Fred, AB1OC

The post 6m Antenna Upgrade Part 3 – microHam Antenna Control System appeared first on Our HAM Station.