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Dave K1WHS article

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RL3BL NEWS

December, 7, 2011
My plan to replace antennas not yet happened. It is not canceled, but just delayed, hi-hi. To be honest, I had everything prepared for antennas replacement this year. But I realized that due to the lack of time and resources it is much more important to complete my country house construction. It is life - we are not living for ham-radio, but ham-radio is just a hobby when one have some time. So, plan with new antennas was shifted to 2012 summer season.

March, 10, 2011
Long and severe winter is coming to end and I am thinking what should I do with my antennas. During my visit to Sakhalin last November I have purchased from "EFICOM" company VHF antennas MasPro 144WH10 (4 pieces) and TONO Antenna Matching Box 4V8X. Yes, these antennas are second-hand but in very good conditions. May be 10 years ago MasPro stopped production of HAM antennas, so only second-hands currently are available. And TONO is really unique and hardly availble.
Now I am going to replace my 2x144WH8 by 4x144WH10. I have spent quite a lot of time searching for recommendation on stacking and baying spacing for such kind of antennas.
Most useful information and recommendations I obtained in the articles of W1WHS "Stacking dis-similar yagis and loop yagis", GM3SEK "Stacking yagi antennas", VK2ZAB "Stacking, phasing and matching yagis" and some others. On Russian I can recommend just one very informative RA6FOO VHF/UHF web-site.
And finally good friend of mine Chuck JH3OII managed to get from customer support service of MasPro original manufacturer''s recommendations on 144WH10 stacking spacing (soon I will place this document on this web-site). Finally, I am equipped by all necessary information how to install 10 el yagis in four stack yagi array.
During April and May I am planning to dismount existing antennas and install 144 MHz 2+2x10 el and 2x15 on 430 MHz.

September, 16, 2010
Now my new callsign is R3BL.

September, 6, 2010
Currently I am struggling with TVI. Never before I faced such problem. TV signal in my location is really week (distance to the TV Broadcasting Center "Ostankino" about 60 km), so everybody here is using TV aerials with embedded signal amplifiers (me as well).
I have no intention to annoy my neighbors in the village, so I decided to be inactive on VHF until the proper solution will be founded and tested: 144 MHz Band pass filter and anti-TVI filters for TV aerials looks reasonable. So I am still awaiting now for my order from Saratov-based REMO plant (anti-TVI filters and TV-aerials amplifiers with embedded 144 MHz elimination filter).
Fortunately, there is no such TVI on 430 MHz band.

July, 22, 2010
OK, done! Mast has been erected. Ready to QRV - 2x8 el Yagi on 144 MHz and 2x15 el Yagi on 430 MHz with 50W and LNAs on each band. Diamond W-721 for HF.

June, 30, 2010
It really tooks more time rather than it was initially expected to assemble mast and antennas.
But now everything is more or less on track and mast is mostly ready for erection. 2x8 el Yagi on 144 MHz (MasPro 144WH8x2) and 2x15 el yagi on 430 (MasPro 430WH15x2). These antennas actually are not new, but in sufficient conditions to be used here, I think. This page picture - antennas assembled and rotator check on the ground.

May, 20, 2010
I am really going to install mast and VHF/UHF antennas on the backyard of my country house, apr. 40 km to south from Moscow (grid locator KO85vg). Recently I have purchased aluminium antenna tower 12 meters high from Kaliningrad-based company "Antenna Depot".
Suppose next 3-4 weeks will spend all my weekends on tower erection, antennas installation etc. Hope that my old 2 m and 70 cm yagis are in sufficient conditions for re-use here in UA3 area.
Hope to add some pictures to the gallery about tower and antennas installation soon.