Harold E. Johnson wrote:
I've seen suggestions here and there about simply aiming a beam
vertically upward and doing all the tuning at ground level instead.
Which would save an awful lot of time and effort. If it works. Does
anybody around here have any experience with this method and if so how
succesful was it?

Thanks,

Brian w3rv

Works fine with a yagi, I've always just lashed a 2 x 4 to the tower and
"hung" the antenna off the side of the tower pointed straight up. There's a
null off the bottom of the yagi, and it ignores the tower as well. Not sure
of the topology of your "hexbeam" thingie, but if you can get it to ignore
things around it, the reflector, if it's doing any reflecting at all, will
remove the ground from the tuning process.

The "thingie" is a 'po boy's horizontally collapsed vertically expanded
two element yagi sort of contraption.

http://midcoast.com/~w1gql/hex/hexbeam.htm

Great little rotatable array for those in situations where installation
space is cramped. Which is what I'm stuck with. Just like full-size
yagis they have decent F/B ratios, normally anywhere from 10 to 20dB.
So based on your experience I should be able to use the Sidearm Method
and get the results you've gotten.

Thanks!

W4ZC

Brian w3rv