Non conducting booms
 

Anyone have experience of making VHF antennas with non conducting booms?

I think I ought to be able to employ a non conducting boom for a yagi design
that is no more than about 50" (1.27 meters) in length. Must have sufficient
rigidity.

I was thinking about using a square boom made out of some synthetic material
(NOT wood). Obviously tthe material must not degrade over time in an
outdoor environment.

Thanks if you can suggest a product.

Wood works fine ... just give 'er a good coat of latex paint. I've got some 432
Quagis that are about 6 years old ... still work great.

jw
K9RZZ

"J999w" wrote in message
...
Wood works fine ... just give 'er a good coat of latex paint. I've got
some 432
Quagis that are about 6 years old ... still work great.

jw
K9RZZ

Have I discarded the wood option prematurely. Maybe. :c)

Hi Richard

If you can get some Cypress lumber to make your boom, it will last
longer than you do!

We had 12 acres under glass, all of the greenhouses were made from
Cypress rails which held the glass in place. They were 71 years old
when we sold the place to a shopping mall developer.

These rails were only 2x2s with two dado's cut out for the glass and a
decorative slot cut down each of the inside portions. They held the
weight of glass just fine for all those years.

TTUL
Gary

Richard wrote:

Have I discarded the wood option prematurely. Maybe. :c)

Get a broken hockey stick -- lots around hockey rinks. They are hard
as nails and work great. I have also used them as yardarms on towers with
pulleys and they have lasted for many years in every kind of weather.

Irv - VE6BP
--
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Beating it with diet and exercise!
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58"/43"(!)/44" (already lower too!)
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Grampa/Ex-Navy/Old Fart/Ham Radio VE6BP
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In article ,
Richard wrote:

Anyone have experience of making VHF antennas with non conducting booms?

The one I made for 200 MHz (TV channel 11) was made from a couple of
pieces of 3/4"-square clear fir, with copper-plated-steel welding rod
segments for elements. Worked fine.

I think I ought to be able to employ a non conducting boom for a yagi design
that is no more than about 50" (1.27 meters) in length. Must have sufficient
rigidity.

I was thinking about using a square boom made out of some synthetic material
(NOT wood). Obviously tthe material must not degrade over time in an
outdoor environment.

I've seen square, hollow rods made of fiberglass. Should work
reasonably well as long as you drill it carefully, cap the ends to
keep and wind out, and paint it afterwards to protect the resin from
solar UV.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

"Richard" wrote in message
...
Anyone have experience of making VHF antennas with non conducting booms?

I think I ought to be able to employ a non conducting boom for a yagi
design
that is no more than about 50" (1.27 meters) in length. Must have
sufficient
rigidity.

About 15 years ago I made a 220 mhz 8 element yagi out of a 10 foot piece of
the gray electrical plastic type conduit. It is still at the top of my
tower.. It is suspose to resist the UV from the sun beter than the normal
PVC water pipe.

About 15 years ago I made a 220 mhz 8 element yagi out of a 10 foot piece of
the gray electrical plastic type conduit. It is still at the top of my
tower.. It is suspose to resist the UV from the sun beter than the normal
PVC water pipe.

Did you have to support the ends of the conduit (e.g. a wire from the
tower top) at all? I've heard/read that the PVC conduits can tend to
droop progressively with time - any sign of that in your antenna?


--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

If you are around any oil rigs you may be able to find some old pump rod.
This rod is fiberglass, one inch in diameter with a large metal connector on
each end. Just hack saw the ends off and you have about 20 feet of very
rigid fiberglass rod. It is easy to make booms of 6 to 8 feet with no droop
at all so a shorter boom would be even better. If you find some after you
have cut it to length give it a good coat of paint just to keep the
fiberglass slivers down.

K7SAM

"Dave Platt" wrote in message
...
About 15 years ago I made a 220 mhz 8 element yagi out of a 10 foot piece
of
the gray electrical plastic type conduit. It is still at the top of my
tower.. It is suspose to resist the UV from the sun beter than the normal
PVC water pipe.

Did you have to support the ends of the conduit (e.g. a wire from the
tower top) at all? I've heard/read that the PVC conduits can tend to
droop progressively with time - any sign of that in your antenna?

The plastic conduit is about 10 feet long and the elements are for 220 mhz
made out of stainless steel 1/8 inch welding rod. The driven and reflectors
are the quagi design. Eight elements total as in one of the ARRL handbooks.
The diameter is about one inch conduit size . That makes it about 1.5
inches or more outside diameter. There is a slight droop but not very much.
There is no support other than the way I mounted it in the middle to the
mast.