I used to use an HB9CV, a 2 element beam with about 5 dB gain, available from Sandpiper and Moonraker. Adjusting the SWR with the little variable cap is a bit fiddly but the beam worked well.
I have looked at the 3 element delta quad from Sandpiper, at £35 for 10.5 dBi it looks attractive and is supposed to be assembled in two minutes. Has anyone tried it?
On the homebrew front, I can recommend the “Suspend-a-Loop” from PW, reprinted in Antennas To Go, Nov. 2004, a simple full-wave loop with a half metre matching section of 300 ohm ribbon and a series variable cap, this gives lots of gain and rolls up to a packable size but I need to waterproof the cap before I use it in ernest!
But Mike is right, there are many satisfied customers for the Sota Beams!
In reply to G6YBC: I have a moonraker ZLSpecial 7 element that does a cracking job although large it does what it says on the tin and assembles very quickly, if you want something smaller though I’d go for the 5 ele instead
There is nothing wrong with SOTAbeam, it is as light as they come and works well both vertically on FM and horizontally on SSB. Richard is a great bloke and makes some excellent antennas, however for true satisfaction I suggest you make your own, I made two at a cost of £7 each.
The reason I made two… Plastic conduit 2m, pipe clips bag of 4, rubber slip-on tubular furniture tips bag of 4, small rubber O rings bag of 50, 4 x 2m stainless steel whips, 4 small crocodile clips - Total cost from B&Q and eBay £13.97, pleasure derived priceless.
I think you could make yours even cheaper by shopping around eg conduit is cheaper at local electrical supplier, pipe clips and the rubber 25mm feet seen in the “Pound Shop” for a pound, Screwfix is also cheaper than B&Q, stainless whips can be substituted by stainless welding rods which are softer but easier to find.
There are plenty of designs on the Net but if you get stuck email me, my email is on QRZ.com.
Brian, I can recommend the Sandpiper Delta Quad for 2m, but for portable work do not be tempted to buy the 2m / 70cm dual band version, like I did. The reason is the spreaders on 2m are flexible enough to remove the elements for travelling, but the 70cms ones are not. If all the 70cms elements where on separate spreaders they could be removed from the boom and would pack flat, but three of them share the 2m spreaders making disassembly fiddly at best.
I would have no hesitation in recommending the 70cm version either but I would suggest anyone wanting to use both bands on the hills buys the separate versions and maybe carries just the one boom.
The antenna can be made lighter by replacing the aluminium boom with a piece of PVC conduit tubing like the SOTAbeam and fitting pipe clips rather than the bulky plastic bracket it comes with so it slips neatly on to a roach pole mast.
I have looked at the 3 element delta quad from Sandpiper, at £35 for
10.5 dBi it looks attractive and is supposed to be assembled in two
minutes. Has anyone tried it?
I have been using the 3 and 6 element Sandpiper delta quads for over 3 years now. I can certainly recommend the 3 element version which after a bit of practice can easily be assembled in less than 2 minutes.
The 6 element version is very good but unless conditions are calm it is possibly a bit too big and heavy for the SOTA pole that I use.
Sorry for the late reply, but with work commitments I am behind in my replys to all who came back with their ideas etc.
You say why not the Sota Beams well, although Richard has done a good job on making and marketing the different antennas they are not the cheapest and my question was a cheap way of getting a small beam. I do have the Backpacker special ( a Sota Antenna) but as I said this not the greatest antenna to use.
A number of people have given me some good ideas also disigns so I’ll be up and running very shortly. Thanks again for your time in replying and look forward to working you from a summit in the future.
Sorry for the late reply, but with work commitments I am behind in my replys to all who came back with their ideas etc.
You say why not the Sota Beams well, although Richard has done a good job on making and marketing the different antennas they are not the cheapest and my question was a cheap way of getting a small beam. I do have the Backpacker special ( a Sota Antenna) but as I said this not the greatest antenna to use.
I did look at the HB9CV antenna, and as you say the cap can be a bit fiddly and that is why I dismissed it.
I have been sent some idea and a couple of designs so should be up and running very shortly.
Thanks again for your time in replying to my call for help and look forward to working you from a summit in the near future
Sorry for the late reply, but with work commitments I am behind in my replys to all who came back with their ideas etc.
A number of people have given me some good ideas also designs so I’ll be up and running very shortly. but basicaly I’ll be using something similar to your ideas which is the cheap and simple method I was looking for.
Thanks again for your time in replying and look forward to working you from a summit in the future.
Sorry for the late reply, but with work commitments I am behind in my replys to all who came back with their ideas etc. Also you did’nt leave your name.
Thanks for the information, but for the time being I’ll run with the disign that Timothy sent me as it’s only a couple of quid to make. I’ll be up and running very shortly. Thanks again for your time in replying and look forward to working you from a summit in the future.