Congratulations on the continued success of your BTHG’s! Mine is built now. I just need to stick it on a mast in the garden, hook up the Nano VNA and tune it.
Hoping to fit that in this week, particularly as we are allegedly due E’s from tomorrow to Thursday.
…hi Ian, yes make sure you do tune. Below are my before and after tuning.
The initial length of 430cm given (which I used) by John Stanley is a good start but needs trimming. Got it down to 1.3 to 1. Very pleased 
cheers- Geoff vk3sq
Nice one Geoff! Yep I’ll stick it up in the garden on a parasol holder and the Carbon 6 and trim it down. I cut mine at around 500cm so I have enough to work with for trimming.
Are you going to make a 70cm one?
Your Carbon 6, if made with carbon may detune your hourglass. I only use fiberglass telescopic poles. I would be interested to see a comparison between a ‘carbon’ pole and a fiberglass pole.
Is the Carbon 6 a fiberglass only pole or is it a carbon composite?
Andrew VK1AD
Ah cool, I can do both. I have the Carbon 6 and also a Wimo 7m non-carbon mast and a 10m Wimo heavier duty non-carbon. Also a Decathlon fishing pole thingybob that is 7m too.
I’ll tune on the Wimo and then check it on the Carbon 6 to compare. 
I think the mast itself, not the outer tube (I may be wrong), is full carbon:
This article from Richard @G3CWI may be worth considering.
Ultra-light Carbon-Fibre Masts: advantages and disadvantages - SOTABEAMS
Not just for the interaction caused by a carbon fibre mast, but also the relative strength, or lack of, when compared with fiberglass masts.
The wind loading of the wire, and more so the top and bottom spreaders, should be considered in the overall mast selection process.
I’ve just made an hour glass antenna for 2m. I’m not sure how well it will work if it’s windy (which is almost guaranteed on a summit here). I’ll probably give it a test on G/NP-028 on Wednesday afternoon.
Welcome to the BTHG Club! Are you making a 70cm one too?
Mine is built apart from having to trim the wire. I’ll actually finish it eventually! 
The weather forecast for Sunday, 26 April 2026,was for good weather and a sunny day with top temperature around 21° Celsius. I decided to head out at tackle VK3/VN-020, Andrew Hill, making an early start to avoid hiking up in the heat of the day, and then Mt Klondyke VK3/VN-031 in the afternoon. Along the way I was greeted with a picturesque sunrise.
This was my fourth activation of Andrew Hill, and the hike up never gets any easier. Contributing to the hiking difficulty I added a larger backpack, an additional 8.4 Ah LifePo4 battery and 1980s era 2m 100-Watt amplifier. This took my backpack to 13.2 kg. The journey up the well graded track was uneventful arriving at the summit about 9:30 am, having departed the parking area 90 minutes earlier.
I set up my Hourglass antenna on a 6 metre SOTAbeams mast and strapped it to a convenient signpost. I assembled the radio equipment on a tarpaulin at the base of the mast and started calling CQ. I was rewarded with 23 QSOs on 2m SSB from 34 to 145 km away. A couple of 10-minute sessions on 40m and 20m netted another 12 QSOs.
My second summit for the day was Mt Klondyke VK3/VN-031 which is a drive-up summit, albeit a steep final approach that tests the abilities of my 13-year-old Rav 4 AWD.
Once on the summit I set up a similar station to Andrew Hill adding some shade from the sun, a seat and table, and a larger battery. The 6m mast was strapped to one leg of the sunshade.
Getting on air at 1:23 pm I made 10 QSOs on 2m SSB from 11 to 138 km away including S2S with @VK3TKK who was set up at Mt St Leonard VK3/VC-006.
Moving to HF at 2:45 pm I got five QSOs on 40m and five QSOs on 20m.
Looking toward to another two summits next weekend if the weather allows.
…hi Peter, great to work you on both summits! I was using an hourglass antenna too. Quite pleased about that.
Geoff vk3sq
It’s good to see some homebrewing of horizontally polarised antennas. However time will show the Hourglass is over sold. It is two loops and as such has modest gain. Yes some excellent contacts have been made but that does not prove that there is anything special about the Hourglass. All 2 element antenna are very close to the same performance. 2 ele offers the most bang for the $. Next stop imo is 5 ele.
I have been working stations with small beams and hourglass antenna for several months and the hourglass has been weaker than the small beams over the same path. The most recent was when I struggled to work an hourglass station but a week later had a healthy indication on the S meter from a 3 ele on the same peak. Granted conditions might have been adverse on the first day but the hourglass station was running 4 times the power. I have worked stations on that peak all the way back to the AM days and I do not expect anything other than good signals.
There may be advantages for the back packer with the Hourglass CF to say my 4, 5 or 10 ele Yagis but most of the users of the Hourglass aren’t hiking in.
Peter VK3PF has published a design for a Yagi suitable for SOTA backpacking. It uses the top of the squid pole for the boom and the rest for support. The elements are carried inside the collapsed squid pole.
I’m not saying don’t use the Hourglass. But do consider if a Moxon or a simple 3, 4, or 5 element beam might not be a better investment.
I find the beauty of the hourglass lies in two important factors.
I do agree that a commercially manufactured 5 element Yagi does perform slightly better than my hourglass however, for the reasons above, the Yagi remains in the car and the log has many QSOs made with a single piece of wire carefully crafted into an hourglass shape.
YMMV.
Ron ..and you know that how?
Andrew VK1AD
As for Yagis with four or more elements, I agree that they offer higher gain.
2-element “Yagis” like Moxon and HB9CV are about 1 dB down (gain ~ 6.x dBi) according to simulations.
Radiation pattern of the hourglass antenna in free space (DM7KN): Max. gain: 7.3 dBi
What makes it very attractive for SOTA is what Peter @VK3ZPF wrote:
I’d like to add that, thanks to its shape, it has a rather low wind load. This means in windy conditions the hourglass antenna can still be safely attached at the top of a 6m squid pole.
Last but not least, I like how it stands out with its simple yet cool elegance 
73, Roman
Andrew,
Don’t believe me? How do I know? Well II’m not senile yet. I can count, observe and reason.
The 3 home stations I’ve noticed using the Hourglass certainly aren’t hiking in. Two portables I’m confident didn’t hike up the drive up peaks they were on. Another two stations I believe were carried up. I’m counting the VK1AD/VK1DA Mt Buffalo activations as one carry up station btw. And there is one In not sure about so I’ll say that one was hiked in.
That’s 5 to 3.
Do your own tally Andrew. Let us know what you get.
Ron
VK3AFW
Is your original observation about VK3 activities?
‘Most’ users are not in VK3. SOTA is a worldwide activity.
Andrew VK1AD
That is a fantastic photo, not just of the antenna but the spectacular scenery in the background.
Andrew,
I’ve seen this antenna excitement before. It has a positive side but it fades.
The Cubical Quad was touted as two stacked 2 element beams that had a lower takeoff angle than a three element beam. They were widely popular. Bamboo spreaders were the thing to use. How many do you see now?
The Delta Loop had a shorter period of frame but was in fact a modified Quad sans bamboo. Haven’t seen one in a decade.
K4ERO published an article in QST in 2018 on the Hourglass. The current interest in the design has been sparked by the current SOTA Challenge, nearly 8 years later. Ian, EI3LH posted here about the design and its adoption is led principally in SE VK by yourself, VK1AD.
As I said first up I am pleased to see a surge in home brewing of antennas. Andrew you are doing good work.
However at the end of the day a three element beam is as easy to build, has less wind area, fractionally more gain in theory and in practice seems to perform better in the field.
Ron
VK3AFW
Don’t get me started… 
Do you have a link for a design?
