Plywood doesnt swell much and the harder you pull on a wedging concrete anchor the harder it grips. KZbin critics are dime a dozen and they don't even deserve a dishonorable mention. You rock Cal!
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Yeah, they are full of ideas. 99% of the ideas / suggestions are totally impractical too!
@m0aze6118 ай бұрын
I’m an old BT previously Post Office telecom lad and we had a field of telegraph poles we trained in as apprentices. Cranmore Boulevard in Shirley. Happy memories but my direction, after my apprenticeship, was Radio and Line Transmission and that was my intro to amateur radio. Nearly everyone in transmission stations were hams and I was the odd one out. Thanks for showing. Mike
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Ah!! OK, my Dad was also a linesman (Royal Sigs)
@NZFarmersGrowersDirectory6 ай бұрын
Back in the 80s we ran a 5/8 vertical on 20 meters. (approx 41ft) Ran 20w QRP SSB rig, did New Zealand to UK on occassion. Big fan of verticals.
@jameski5oeb6688 ай бұрын
You've never done a thing that would be considered impractical, that is what matters! Love it when you make things happen. Great video!
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Thank you!
@Dreamlgider8 ай бұрын
Next test I'd like to see is phasing the verticals, see what diffference it is compared to the parasitic array. Great stuff Cal. 73 OY1R
@michaelpowell7828 ай бұрын
Thank you Cal for another excellent video! Per your other videos on parasitic reflectors/directors I have installed the following system which seems to work very well: My homebrew multi band 80-10 wire vertical (DX commander design) is nestled in the middle of pine trees. I have two elements reflector or directors on 40m that I can hoist up and run either as reflector or director and have nice gain NE or S/W with addition/subtraction of a 3 foot element section using Anderson power pole connectors at each end. The kit include two elements at 31' (7.5MHZ6) and two 3' foot elements (when added for 6.84 Mhz). element spacing from the center driven element is close to the 8.5M (28 feet) you use. I have a a nylon horizontal cord with two small pulleys (17M / 68 feet apart) hoisted up approximately 45 feet. Each pulley has about 10' of stretch cord and 80' of paracord for hoisting up the reflector or director. On the ground each reflector/director has 16 x 16' foot radials. I made up two aluminum radial plates with SO239 connector with 4" center conductor with a power pole connector. The radial plates are anchored to the ground with an 18" galvanized nail spike. Each radial plate has a small metal hook for attaching the paracord at full hoist. I quickly check reflector and/or director tune with a NANO VNA. Most of the time I simply use a reflector on 40m as I am not sure if the effort for hoisting up the director provides any substantial TX or RX gain over the reflector. I need to get a ham buddy to hoist up the director per instructions over HTs while I am operational to see if there is any addition RX gain. I also have a similar set up for 20m with four radial plates and radials surrounding the multiband vertical and have two tuned elements (director and reflector) aluminum poles that connect to the radial plates with power pole connections. I typically take down the 40m direct/reflector elements after I am done operating. I coil the elements & paracord and hang them 6' up on nearby tree trunks...we get deer, elk, bears, mountain lions, coyotes, fox, and wolf running around and they can do a fair bit of damage if a guy line or element is snagged or trampled... I am now using your DX10 antenna wire purchased from DX Engineering for my antenna projects...very nice wire! Next project will be a reflector for 80m so I can have gain to the east from NW Montana.
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Great fun! Good work :)
@thomasperina29908 ай бұрын
Hello Lord Callum: Thank you for this video sir. Love your new antenna experiment in your outdoor antenna farm especially since your trusted & loving sidekick is always with you. I spose you miw your own grass in the field but don't you have to take up all of those radials that are in the grass. God Bless & stay safe dir, TMP, Unit 22, from N.J.
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
The radials were hidden a week after installation.. I can't find them now.
@Stef-in-the-Philippines8 ай бұрын
When you do your phased 40m vertical experiment, you'll be able to switch directions. That will give you a positive confirmation of gain. You can test both receiving and have the other station give you two signal reports -- one firing at him, the other pointed away. (Assuming he can hear you when you are pointed away from him!) Great videos, Lord Callum -- blessings from the Philippines
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
That will become clear when we go with the triangluar array which as roughly same gain as a 2-element but in three directions.. Should be fun!
@PenryMMJ8 ай бұрын
Well you see Callum, if you get a volcanic eruption like they are having in Iceland, then that set up just won't be strong enough. Just because there hasn't been any volcanoes in the area for a couple of million years, that's no excuse for not being cautious. 😁
@VE9ASN8 ай бұрын
Raced to get a new ocfd up to have a listen for you, good luck!
@robertmeyer47448 ай бұрын
looks great. for 12V out in field just use small battery. relay does not take much. you can even make up a remote switch . just as long as RF from station does not trip it. if you got extra control lead in your under ground cable just use one. ground outher side or relay. then just send 12V from shack to relay to switch the reflector. love to see you trying things. makes a great video. hope to hear you better in the US. I am in Boston NY . just off the side the station in NY you worked. 73's
@fasturn-fc2of8 ай бұрын
Rock on Tommy ❤
@MAV88658 ай бұрын
Cracking Video Cal.. looking forward to "Sunday" night if you can. M7MNP
@shanerorko80768 ай бұрын
I was only just looking at the 4 square setup on your site.
@AndyAAzeroAM8 ай бұрын
Ahhhhhh, so you can leave a DXCS elements as they are and just put a single reflector for the band ya want.. that's a Top Gear Top Tip right there! I don't know why I thought they both had to be single elements. Thanks for the light bulb moment :)
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Yes Sir!
@radiotests8 ай бұрын
Cal, enjoyed this 2 times today to learn how you are able to teach this basic but honestly killer technique to reflect an already great takeoff angle. You should remind folks it's also a parasitic noise reflector too. 2 birds with one stone, or is it birdies? You have done much to advance the hobby and I greatly enjoy your humble but effective authority in the hobby. Great video production too. The bits of pleasant music gave it a high value! But please no balls and vaseline comments, we wouldn't want the censors flagging good content 😅😂 73 KD9UQE
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
No censorship yet! :)
@Dennisjp-83188 ай бұрын
good show
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@brianfields44796 ай бұрын
That's a great video.
@DXCommanderHQ6 ай бұрын
Thanks!
@g4lmn-ron4018 ай бұрын
The Telco people with their poles, they are not likely to power up the test rig. It is just for their rookies to climb poles and do the health and safety stuff. They might put portable tone generators on the wires to check the continuity but that's audio stuff. I would absolutely nick a pole for a top band doublet.
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Haha.. Yes, I will :)
@goddlediddles7 ай бұрын
Hi Cal. Great video as usual. Did you measure the parasitic's resonance without spreading out the radials - they seem to be coming away from the plate in a bunch? Does that still give an accurate reading? Many thanks, and please keep uploading great videos.
@DXCommanderHQ7 ай бұрын
I just threw them out and they are still all over the place. Dogs keep moving them when they run.. It's like a triup hazard / obstacle course out there! LOL
@No7Dumb8 ай бұрын
I NOW HAVE A FOUNDATION LICENCE !! AND ITS YOUR FAULT MATE !! well partly vk7hh was my local VK hero But you where way up there .. thanks for the channel... VK4 QRM :)
@godarklight8 ай бұрын
Congrats, although hayden obviously got demoted 3 numbers there :)
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Haha Poor Hayden!!
@No7Dumb8 ай бұрын
@@DXCommanderHQ he's Tasmanian ... It's an upgrade haha ..sorry Hayden.. this is what happens when you trust auto pre dicked.. 😂😂
@morecambeanglersandtrawler10748 ай бұрын
Would be nice to have a pitch marker and make a circumference circle showing the direction of arrays hi hi lol marks at north south east and west just move classics around circle lol prob not see it for snow soon or markers on fence lol anyways great vids antennas and thanks again cal. Mark
@paulsengupta9718 ай бұрын
Create a circular railway line and mount the reflector on that.
@morecambeanglersandtrawler10748 ай бұрын
Great idea railway rotator lol
@jakearkinstall53138 ай бұрын
Idea for an A/B test. Run a coax off the parasitic antenna over to a safe, dry place, then fit it into a shelly. When you remotely switch it "on", connect the antenna to the ground plane. When you switch it off, disconnect. This assumes that the parasitic antenna that is not connected to the ground plane will be effectively the same as having no parasitic antenna at all, and unfortunately I know very little about parasitic antennas, but I think it'd be a fun experiment if you think it stands a chance.
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Yes, I could use a Shelly.. I was thinking that...
@Tore_Lund4 ай бұрын
Your neighbour is friendly, put a director on his lawn.
@user-bd1pk1rc1x8 ай бұрын
I would think you could ring the tower at the airport to let them know when you are making a video. Hope you are all well. Regards Chris M1BZN
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
HAHA
@gwlong8 ай бұрын
Great fun!
@MikeDent8 ай бұрын
Hhhmmmmmmmm. interesting. Thanks for sharing this.
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Any time!
@geoffmcwiggan28148 ай бұрын
Hello old mate. Have you ever thought about a twin driven element with the parasitic at the back ? Cheers mate. 👍🥃🇦🇺
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Yes, so that would be effectively the "Trianglular array (although we'll feed all three when we get around to it..!
@cornbread-KO5RN8 ай бұрын
Is this frequency in use
@ronleblanc98328 ай бұрын
super experiment
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Thank you! Cheers!
@BrianFields8 ай бұрын
Surely the telecom folks could use some practical experience stringing some long wires from the top of those poles..... 😇
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Absolutely!!
@srinivasnyayapathi90838 ай бұрын
I started wating this video had a bad headace...... at the end of the video it was gone...... the headace was replaced with more more bright ideas based on this video.... Thanks Callum. 7 3's
@paulsengupta9718 ай бұрын
It's the RF. Obviously good for the brain. Either that or Callum has extended his remote operation into healing.
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Remote healing.. Hmmm. There could be a market!
@paulsengupta9718 ай бұрын
@@DXCommanderHQAntenna advice is the way to heal a radio ham.
@karlwalker970019 күн бұрын
I've been trying a 2 element for 20m using my expedition pole as the driven element. No matter what I do i cant get any directivity, the reflector may as well not be there .....
@DXCommanderHQ17 күн бұрын
From memory.. Spacing on 40m should be 8.5m so on 20m, about 4.3m. Make the reflector 5% longer.
@ZeroHarry8 ай бұрын
Great video Cal. I was wondering if you could use KY Jelly instread of Vasaline but it appears the KY Jelly should only be used in the bed room.
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Apparently.
@paulsengupta9718 ай бұрын
I have my FT-991 on the bedside table, where should I apply the KY? It doesn't get very hot and humid in there.
@tomstange77628 ай бұрын
Hi Cal...thanks for all Your videos about antennas and s.o.....what do You think about constructing a bobtail beam...I did it in my previousqth and worked perfectly on 40m...I remember a qso with vr6sc shawn from Pitcairn when I came home at around 06:56 utc oct 14th, 1993, talking to her in ssb with that antenna....btw I enjoy Your channel vy much ...greetings to all of You...73s Tom
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Not yet..
@limanowski12348 ай бұрын
Hello Callum, I am still puzzled how you derived the initial parameters of the element lengths and and spacing of the elements. You stated a 5% increase in length of the reflector over the driven element length Where did you get this factor? Also the spacing for the 40 meters elements was approximately 8.5 meters. How was this derived? I enjoy your videos immensely and look forward to your explanation. John Limanowski N9DNB
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Just go 8.5m and 200kHz difference between the two, it works. Else I would have to write a chapter! My "percentage" notes are approximate..
@limanowski12348 ай бұрын
Thanks Cal!!@@DXCommanderHQ
@nrgxpert8 ай бұрын
The default Reflector spacing is 0.2 Wavelengths behind the Driven element, so 300/7.1x0.2= 8.5m spacing to put the wavelengths in phase. The passive reflector is 5% longer. I built the same thing for the 12m band for portable use using two V-dipoles on moveable tripods and it worked great.
@TFuzz588 ай бұрын
Thanks for proving this out Cal. I would love to try this with my classic and signature 9. Do you think the classic would be long enough to be an effective reflector for the Sig 9? On a totally unrelated subject, I made a contact with Jim, W6LG today and I mentioned that the video you did with him was one of my favourites. He said he would love to do another video with you and I hope you guys can do that. It reminds me of some of the videos you did with Roly when you guys were talking about parasitic and phased arrays. Cheers from Moose Jaw. Tim VE5THF
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Yes.. You can use ANY pole for the reflector.. And you can make the wire any length.. As long as it tunes ABOUT 150kHz longer (lower). I need to run the numbers again. I think I should have been 7.20MHz (driven) and 7.00MHz (reflector)
@paulsengupta9718 ай бұрын
@@DXCommanderHQ Won't you be ok with 7.05 driven and 6.8 reflector? Try FT8 or WSPR and look for the spots. Or CW and reverse beacon thingie.
@stirlingpark61458 ай бұрын
Calum, what is the difference (in gain) between adding a reflector and adding a director element? I am just thinking that on VHF/UHF we add one reflector and then multiple directors. I am not suggesting 12 forward elements on 40m, but what might be theoretically interesting would be a single reflector with say three directors equidistant from the driven element switchable between the three? One would be directly in front of the driven element and the other two a few degrees either side of this central point, like a trident. Late night Saturday madness... Would that even "model"?
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Reflector (according to the books) adds up to 5dB.. The front director, another 2 .. hardly worth it.. But a total of 7 is appealing.
@Ran-tan-tan8 ай бұрын
16:42 I thought that was your knees making that sound... :P I'm some 20 years your junior and my knees do make a sound not dissimilar to that... :D
@Ran-tan-tan8 ай бұрын
20:05 At my work we had a cold storage, like it was not heated but it was mostly covered from the elements... Rainwater had access to it and did get there (under the sliding doors). We had not that different racking there with three levels of pallets and properly heavy stuff on them. The legs of the racks were shimmed with plywood and we never had a problem. I only have about ten years of data from that, as our company just moved premises to bigger and better one, but I'd say you're pretty much golden with your setup. Edit: This is in northern Finland, so we have pretty harsh conditions that that setup had to endure too...
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Yeah.. Not my knees! LOL... OK with the shims.. Same here :)
@paulsengupta9718 ай бұрын
R.I.P. 40m Asia... Question, does this appear to affect any of the other bands at all?
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
No it shouldn't..
@jaimz338 ай бұрын
What's the commander's overall footprint out to its furthest wires?
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Depends.. You *can* go down to about 7 feet diameter.. You could go even lower but then you might be losing out. Will be doing a test on this shortly..
@jaimz338 ай бұрын
@@DXCommanderHQdo you sell the parts you have laid out on the table? M6NZP.
@cuisinartOH18 ай бұрын
For the landed gentry ham, has anyone tried to make the ground-mount vertical equivalent to a 40m-10m log periodic array?
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Woah!
@michaelpolimer21288 ай бұрын
would be interesting to see the difference between the parasitic element being a reflector or a director? maybe when you put up the phased array you could switch the third element from a reflector to a director...........lengthen and shorten the wire with a relay or switch a little coil in & out? something to model anyway.........cheers from New England to Old England, Mike, K1FNX near Boston
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Hiya Mike.. I am reliably told (modelling suggests also) that a reflector only is better than a director only (similar to a 2-ele yagi).
@michaelpolimer21288 ай бұрын
QSL cheers MP@@DXCommanderHQ
@michaelpolimer21288 ай бұрын
with a 2 element driven phased array (Christman) we can switch the radiating direction very easily. If we add a third parasitic element it would be cleaver to be able to electronically make it either a director or a reflector depending on the "driven" direction. We "know" a 2 element yagi is always the driven element and a reflector, the question is how much "worse" would a driven element and a director be? and/or would it be better to put up 4 elements, drive two and make the outer two fixed reflectors and make the odd one out dissapear? ie what do you get with a reflector behind a driven phased pair?
@foxonem7dfh2578 ай бұрын
Who's music did you use Cal
@DXCommanderHQ8 ай бұрын
Oh gosh.. A lot of different stuff. I have a bloomin expensive (sometimes I wonder why!) account with Epidemic SOund.. I could find them all if you need to.
@foxonem7dfh2578 ай бұрын
No worries Cal, was just interested in artists@@DXCommanderHQ
@foxonem7dfh2578 ай бұрын
If it works Cal why change it, we all have little tricks which work for us.
@2metercrew3898 ай бұрын
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
@eazystreet55078 ай бұрын
I wish you would build a multi band that could fit in a tree. You could fit it over a L bracket that had a 3' support pipe that the antenna would slide over. I have a perfect spot on a Fur tree 130' up. Would be fantastic for 40m. good on 80m 12, 11 and 10 would be great! Any thoughts?
@radiotests8 ай бұрын
Take it from experience and 30 years of Army Signal Corps testing. Evergreens like jungle trees will resonate on any vertical in the near field and will affect the far field pattern out several hundred feet. You honestly have to hoist a swivel off a pvc yard arm to use conifers year round and test your antenna tuning for best REACTANCE and good SWR. You can build a resonator coil around said tree and spiking into the sap bark actually tune up a live tree. Its MILSPEC not joking a way to do secure comms without the mast being seen.
@michaelpowell7828 ай бұрын
If you have two trees of similar height you could sling shot over the tree and hoist up a pulley system. One pulley for each tree and using weights to allow for give during wind storms. Use a 4mm diameter paracord to create a horizontal paracord line from tree-to-tree at a height of say 8-100 feet. In the middle of the horizontal hoist line add 6 small pulleys spaced 10-12" apart, one pulley for each element, Each element pulleys will have 10' of UV shock cord and enough para cord to allow an element to be hoisted from the ground. Build yourself a r12"x12" radial plate out of aluminum plate available at just about any hardware store. Drill and tap for stainless bolts/wingnuts for attaching radials. Take some 1" wide aluminum stock, drill hole for SO239 connector and bend into an L shape and fasten to the radial plate with SS hardware or aluminum rivets. Drill 4 holes large to hammer 12-18" steel stakes into the ground to anchor the radial plate or fabricate anchor using 2' threaded rod buried in the ground. Create another plate 6"x6" for the elements with wingnut connection points for element and RF feed connections from the SO239. Use 2"-3"plastic standoffs. Use the element cut lengths per the details in DX Commander manuals on Cal's various antennas. There will be some interaction between the band elements but using a Nano NVA or antennal analyzer will greatly help in tuning the system. Use Cal's info on radial lengths and numbers. On my home brew 80-10M DX commander style antenna I have 32 x16' radials and 16 x 32' and it works great on all bands. I highly reccomend reading Cal's product manuals and watching his videos. The DX10 antenna wire is pretty nice to work with.