Wednesday, February 16, 2011

VK2ABQ BEAM 50 MHZ (6M)

 

The VK2ABQ is an easy beam antenna to build. I built one for portable use for the 6m band, you can see the details in the above diagram. The antenna is a two element yagi made with wire and the element legs bent back to reduce the size. This also makes it a popular antenna for 28,21 and 14MHz.

The support arms can be made of a none conductive material such as PVC or fibre glass tubing, or for a temporary antenna you could use dowel or bamboo canes, drill a small hole through each arm to thread the wires. Attach the cross arms to the centre plate with small u-clamps. The centre plate is a piece of plywood 6 inches square. The centre insulators can be made of Perspex, or any other lightweight none conductive material.

The beam is fixed to the mast with L-brackets available at any handyman shop. Make sure the beam is mounted horizontal as most operators use horizontal polarization on 6m SSB. 

For final adjustments, connect an S.W.R. meter between your transceiver and antenna and trim the driven element wire. Cut the same amount off each side of the wire until you have achieved a good S.W.R. for the part of the band you wish to work on.

The transmitted power will radiate in the opposite direction of the reflector, for example if you look at the antenna in the diagram, the radiated power will go from the bottom to the top of the page.

The VK2ABQ is a great antenna to build, it works well on 6m and is a fraction of the cost of a commercial antenna.

1 comment:

  1. used the vk2abq very sucessfully on 10 and 15 m
    great little antenna

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