Who sells them with the most bang for the buck?

Depends what you want. Are you going to use a small Yagi for FM work or
a long boom Yagi for SSB/CW? If you want something fairly simple, a
homemade 6 or 8 element Yagi is fairly simple. Otherwise, for some
serious weak signal work, the K1FO designs are quite commonly used.
Directive Systems sell them... http://www.directivesystems.com/antenna4.htm

Hope that helps!

Scott
N0EDV

Merlin-7 KI4ILB wrote:

Who sells them with the most bang for the buck?

What design plans would you use?

Thanks
joe

"Scott" wrote in message
.. .
Depends what you want. Are you going to use a small Yagi for FM work or
a long boom Yagi for SSB/CW? If you want something fairly simple, a
homemade 6 or 8 element Yagi is fairly simple. Otherwise, for some
serious weak signal work, the K1FO designs are quite commonly used.
Directive Systems sell them...
http://www.directivesystems.com/antenna4.htm

Hope that helps!

Scott
N0EDV

"Merlin-7 KI4ILB" wrote in message
...
What design plans would you use?

Thanks
joe


Are you an Internet only type of person?

The original design was perfected by Steve Powlishen, K1FO, who spent
hundreds of hours optimizing yagi designs on a high powered Hewlett Packard
computer.
He started with some computer optimized designs of Tom Kirby, W1EJ, (SK) who
was using computer software developed at Ohio State University. W1EJ had
came up with many excellent VHF long yagi designs.

The finished K1FO designs were carefully checked out in the real world by
K1FO to ensure accuracy of the design effort. His efforts have produced an
exceptional design with maximum gain very close to the maximum amount
possible, while keeping side lobes, (particularly those of the H-plane) at a
very low level. The net result is broad bandwidth, wide beamwidth, and clean
lobe structure.
Clean H-plane patterns translate to efficient stacking with maximum possible
gain and manageable array side lobes.

The design has been published in MANY printings of the ARRL Handbook.

gb

"Scott" wrote in message
.. .
Depends what you want. Are you going to use a small Yagi for FM work or a
long boom Yagi for SSB/CW? If you want something fairly simple, a
homemade 6 or 8 element Yagi is fairly simple. Otherwise, for some
serious weak signal work, the K1FO designs are quite commonly used.
Directive Systems sell them...
http://www.directivesystems.com/antenna4.htm

Hope that helps!

Scott
N0EDV

Now you tell me. I just ordered 2 beams from M-Square, one for 432 and one
for 144. Wish I had the K1FO antennas as I had one for 432 and it worked
very well. I did not know anyone had picked up the K1FO design after he
became a SK.

Ralph Mowery wrote:

"Scott" wrote in message
. ..
Depends what you want. Are you going to use a small Yagi for FM work or a
long boom Yagi for SSB/CW? If you want something fairly simple, a
homemade 6 or 8 element Yagi is fairly simple. Otherwise, for some
serious weak signal work, the K1FO designs are quite commonly used.
Directive Systems sell them...
http://www.directivesystems.com/antenna4.htm

Hope that helps!

Scott
N0EDV

Now you tell me. I just ordered 2 beams from M-Square, one for 432 and one
for 144. Wish I had the K1FO antennas as I had one for 432 and it worked
very well. I did not know anyone had picked up the K1FO design after he
became a SK.

Important correction: Steve Powlishen, K1FO, is NOT an SK! (W9GB had it
correct: the person who died was the co-developer W1EJ.)

W9GB is also correct that they are excellent yagis, and have been
published in several editions of the ARRL Handbook. The most extensive
write-up is in the ARRL Microwave Experimenter's Handbook Volume 1.

Don't worry, you'll be fine with an M2 yagi as well. There is a lot of
convergence between modern long yagi designs, so the state-of-the-art is
that products from all the major manufacturers are very close to optimum
performance in terms of gain and pattern.

There can still be some differences in performance between different
brands, depending mostly on the exact balance between gain, pattern and
bandwidth the designer was trying to achieve. However, these differences
between brands are almost always quite small, so for comparable designs
(ie yagis with the same or very similar boom length, of 2-3 wavelengths
or more) the difference between brands might only be a few tenths of a
dB in terms of gain, and maybe a few dB difference in the levels of
minor sidelobes.

End users will hardly ever notice these differences on the air, so when
choosing which long yagi to buy, you can pay more attention to other
important factors, such as overall size, style of construction,
suitability for your weather conditions, price and dependable product
support.

[I could write a lot more about "optimized" long yagis, but not this
morning. There's more information in the 'Long Yagi Workshop' section of
my website.]



--
73 from Ian GM3SEK
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek

If you don't mind having a little less gain than is ultimately possible
by using an antenna modeling program, the NBS (Nation Bureau of
Standards) designs are pretty straight-forward. For a 6 element Yagi,
here is element lengths and spacings for building with insulated
elements (insulated from the boom, so I would use wood, 1" X 2" X 8.5')

Lengths:
Reflector = 3' 4"
Driven = 3' 2-3/16"
Dir 1 = 3' 7/8"
Dir 2 = 3' 7/16"
Dir 3 = 3' 7/16"
Dir 4 = 3' 7/8"

Spacing:
Ref to Driven = (187.2/Fc) X 12
Spacing between all other elements = (234/Fc) X 12
where Fc is the design center frequency in MHz, ie 146 for the center of
the FM portion). The spacing calculations give the answer in inches.

Then you need to feed it. I use delta matches. Are you good at
qrz.com? If so I can send you a drawing of the feed to get you started
(but you would need an SWR meter that works at 2M to get it adjusted).

Scott
N0EDV

Merlin-7 KI4ILB wrote:
What design plans would you use?

Thanks
joe

"Scott" wrote in message
.. .

Depends what you want. Are you going to use a small Yagi for FM work or
a long boom Yagi for SSB/CW? If you want something fairly simple, a
homemade 6 or 8 element Yagi is fairly simple. Otherwise, for some
serious weak signal work, the K1FO designs are quite commonly used.
Directive Systems sell them...

http://www.directivesystems.com/antenna4.htm

Hope that helps!

Scott
N0EDV

Oops, sorry ;(

I think the M Squared antennas are pretty good anyways.

Scott
N0EDV

Ralph Mowery wrote:

"Scott" wrote in message
.. .

Depends what you want. Are you going to use a small Yagi for FM work or a
long boom Yagi for SSB/CW? If you want something fairly simple, a
homemade 6 or 8 element Yagi is fairly simple. Otherwise, for some
serious weak signal work, the K1FO designs are quite commonly used.
Directive Systems sell them...
http://www.directivesystems.com/antenna4.htm

Hope that helps!

Scott
N0EDV


Now you tell me. I just ordered 2 beams from M-Square, one for 432 and one
for 144. Wish I had the K1FO antennas as I had one for 432 and it worked
very well. I did not know anyone had picked up the K1FO design after he
became a SK.

"Merlin-7 KI4ILB" wrote in message
...
Who sells them with the most bang for the buck?


Probably CushCraft. There are so many of these around that they are also not
hard to find used at hamfests. I once picked up a 7 element for $8. Can't
buy the aluminum for that. A friend of mine used 4 of their Boomer models
for moon bounce. Only thing I don't like about them is the gamma match.

Tam/WB2TT

Very pleased with my M2 2M9SSB 9 element yagi. 12.4 dbi gain with 20+db
f/b. Download the owners manual he
1. http://www.ad5th.com/VHF.html

--

73,Charlie-AD5TH
www.ad5th.com
"
Tam/WB2TT" wrote in message
. ..

"Merlin-7 KI4ILB" wrote in message
...
Who sells them with the most bang for the buck?


Probably CushCraft. There are so many of these around that they are also
not hard to find used at hamfests. I once picked up a 7 element for $8.
Can't buy the aluminum for that. A friend of mine used 4 of their Boomer
models for moon bounce. Only thing I don't like about them is the gamma
match.

Tam/WB2TT