Original post date July 2019 by W1KES
Dan KR4UB accepted the satellite challenge for Field Day, a noble challenge indeed. Aiding his effort, Dan reclaimed and repurposed available parts and materials to build an industrial strength satellite antenna boom…materials and instructions follow. Nicely done Dan!
- army surveyors tripod non magnetic construction, no ferrous metals added below to disturb compass reading.
- left over 2″ PVC electrical conduit and elbow..
- some ironwood strips inside the PVC to take the floppy/flexy out and balance out weight of antenna.
- wood doweling, epoxy, brass screws to reinforce compass support elbow butt glue joint onto PVC elbow
- good quality surveyor’s compass bought to rough out new boundaries when purchasing adjoining land some years back
- section of left over central vacuum cleaner return pipe (near perfect fit over PVC electrical pipe).. rotates for quick antenna polarization adjustment.
- Brass screws (where used) so no ferrous metal near compass
- Arrow VHF/UHF gamma matched antenna. The foam covered handle fits perfectly inside the end of the 2″ dia PVC electrical conduit used as the boom.
- powered by arm-strong…..
[c] [y] photos by KR4UB, OCRA Inc
