Tune-A-Tenna: the BEST HF Ham Radio Antenna I've Ever Had
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 19 мар 2021
- Un-boxing and initial installation of a Tune-A-Tenna for #AmateurRadio #HamRadio
The Tune-A-Tenna is an Inverted Vee dipole HF antenna, the length of which can be remotely adjusted to a resonant length, so you can operate QRO (i.e. full legal limit of 1500 watts) without a trans-match (aka "tuner").
This ingenious antenna system can generally get down to a 1:1 SWR, or very near to it. Low SWR means less loss in the coax, higher effective radiated power, better signal reports, pile-up busting, improved fuel mileage, and world peace. (No guarantee of fuel mileage expressed or implied.)
Oh, sure, it’s supposed to be a bit informative... but mostly this is a bumbling nerd on the roof. Speaking of which, after I got this up on the mast-mounted adjacent to the roof, I did the calculations seen on page 26 of docs.fcc.gov/public/attachmen... and determined that to remain MPE compliant, I could only operate barefoot, but not QRO, if my wife was in her office.
I also could not quite get down to all of the 80-meter band (could get some of 75 meters, but not optimal tune), due to the size of my lot. So I've since moved it to a separate 50' carbon fiber mast, not adjacent to the house, with the elements angled at less than 180 degrees from each other. (I hope to make another video showing the modeling of this leaning inverted vee, but the short story is it works just fine.) 
Наука
![Rob49 - On Dat Money (with Cardi B) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fTFS58mHJh8/mqdefault.jpg)
You just opened the enclosure & I'm already impressed. (It appears to be made very well.)
@@smartazz61 I concur. I felt the same.
I was on 20 meters and I heard someone plugging this product. I did a search and found this video and glad I did. I love the design but I see so many improvements that could make this thing work so much better. I can see designing an improved version using two cool muscle motors instead of one DC gearmotor, one for each side. Cool muscle motors have built in encoders so that all you need to do is select which band you're on and the motors run out the wire to the proper length. Also, I would eliminate the sharp bends where the wire leaves the enclosure by repositioning the spools/motors accordingly. It's a very interesting concept and one worth expanding on. Thank you for posting the video!
Because of the slight springiness of the stainless steel cable, the sharp corners where they pass through the box have not been a problem.
What you call "cool muscle" motors are more typically called stepper motors. That's how the SteppIR antennas work. But you add more expensive motors, and the logic circuitry to remember exact positions, and that's how you end up with a system that costs more than 3x as much.
Would I love to have the cheapest SteppIR there is? Yes. But I'd rather keep the extra $2700. I'm funny that way.
Great video, BTW. THANK YOU.
Very clever. Like it!
You can tune a piano; you can tune a radio; you can even Tune-A-Tenna; but you can’t tune a fish.
Well, you CAN tune a fish, but since sound travels faster in water than in air, it messes up the calculations.
@@kelvin0mql If you work for StarKist, you can tunafish for a living. As Hams, we tend to avoid such things, especially if we are devilish, out of professional courtesy.
1:51 I've heard of truck nuts but antenna nuts are new to me... 😂
Thank you
Definitely a jury rigged mounting that I see you having future issues with. I'm surprised that this doesn't come with or offer a more secure mounting system. An interesting antenna system but pricey.
On the input side, how does the antenna wires attach to the moving pulley?
There is no electrical connection to any pulley.
Inside the box, there are two stainless steel SPOOLS of thin stainless steel stranded wire. Not unlike brush contacts on a motor, or the wiper of a potentiometer, as the central motor turns a non-conductive shaft that the two spools are affixed to, the spools can rotate and the antenna feed connections press against the side of the spool to make the contact even though the spool is turning.
The only pulleys, per se, are on the trolley weights, so they move smoothly down the non-conductive guy lines.
Thanks, I meant Spool! Your explanation is helpful, I was curious about the connection. 73!
Nice. So how's it going with this antenna? Did you need a tuner still? How high up is the primary box you show yourself mounting? Can you tune to 160 M?
The antenna *can* tune to 160m, but I'm not a farmer - I don't have enough land for that. I have a mere 1/3-acre corner lot. To do 160, I'd have to have one leg of it go across the street to a neighbor's yard, and the other leg go into yet another neighbor's yard in the other direction. I am considering building a heavily-loaded vertical for 160 someday.
I do not need a tuner (98% of the time). Just the other day I fired up the amp and worked a handful of POTA stations on 20m and 17m, peaking about 500w. No tuner, no problem. That said, because of the size of my yard, I can get this thing to stretch out to do SSB on 75m fine... but if I'm going to do FT8 way out at 80m, I don't have enough room. The trolleys have hit the guy stakes by that point, so I'm still a little too short. But it's within the SWR range that the rig's internal tuner can manage. I rarely do that, but I can if I'm so inclined.
Although I'm able to get this telescoping mast up where the feed box would be at almost 50', it gets very wobbly, and needs a LOT of guy lines. A completely annoying amount of guy lines. Untenable. Plus, that's really only helpful for 80m... and 80m is not a fun band. It's where the meanest/grumpiest old hams hang out. And if I have it tuned to 6m or 10m with the center way up at 50', well that's far too high to be effective. You get a horribly bifurcated pattern when you put a dipole too high. So I have it up at about 35' instead, which is a better compromise for 6m through 40m.
@@kelvin0mql great info. Thank you for that. I’m really interested in getting me one.
@@iPigee I almost bought a 2nd one for Field Day & other out-n-about ops, but it’d feel too much like cheating.
Was really enjoying that video then it ended:( shame you didn't record contacts and how well/bad it was but new subscriber cheers n look forward the the next one.73
How do you know where you are at or how long the wire is? I don't see any position indication or feedback.
Valid question. Here's how I handle that. Firstly, when I change bands, I usually know what band I changed FROM. So if I was on 80 and I switched to 40, I know I'm going IN for quite a while.
I listen for a clear spot, even though before re-tuning the thing might be quite deaf. Switch to FM, 5w, and tap the foot switch briefly every few seconds as I'm holding the IN toggle. Just long enough to see what the SWR is. Repeat until I see the SWR start to fall. As the SWR gets below 4:1 then I'll just hold the footswitch down looking for the minimum. That is usually ALL I need to do.
BUT - I can get lost. I may have been listening to local AM Broadcast for a day or two (for which the antenna's length doesn't matter - I have to turn the Attenuator all the way up), and have had the radio off for another 3, and then have no idea what the antenna was most recently set to. If so, then I have a three-pronged approach. 1st, I have 3M Reflective Tape (the red/white stuff the put on the corners of semi trailers) on one of the element weights. This allows my outdoor Nest cam to see a bright spot from the IR illuminators even when it's 50' away. I have the cam tilted such that one entire element runs diagonally in the camera view. Lower left corner is 80m, upper-right corner is 6m plus the central box. In fact, at 6m, I can just barely see both weights.
2nd, if there's too much dew or dust on the Nest lens, I just step out my back door and look. I can guess pretty well which band it's set for.
3rd, if it's on 10m or 12m, and I can't be sure which, I just hook up the antenna analyzer and find out where the dip is.
Could it be made so complicated that it's just the perfect thing for an Appliance Operator who memorized enough test questions/answers to pass but doesn't really understand? Yes. And there's a well-known antenna manufacturer that did just that - their antennas start at over $3k. That's not what this is. This is for the Amateur Radio Operator who understands how an Inverted Vee dipole is tuned, and would like to do so without literally cutting and/or splicing wire outside. Every time.
I should make a little how-to video just about this subject. This would be good to cover.
@@kelvin0mql Thanks Kelvin. It's an amazingly simple idea which I love. I would probably put different colored paint on the wire realizing that I wouldn't see it at night. Lol. 73
@@Andrew-yx7sf Yup… simple it is. And it’s intentionally designed mostly with parts fairly easily sourced from hardware & marine suppliers.
Someday I hope to get (& learn how to use) a nanoVNA. I suspect it might be very quick & easy to see at a glance where it’s currently resonant, then adjust accordingly.
@@kelvin0mql Nano VNA are great. SWR meters are good for monitoring. Nothing like a nice graph (like a waterfall) to see where you're at. But a VNA is also going to show other resonant points, like you can use a 40 mtr antenna on 17 meters.
Colored paint is good if you can see the wire. At night inside the the shack, doesn't do much good unless you have a camera on it. I actually put reflective tape on a couple of element that light up nicely from IR camera. A wiper like on a rotor or a counter could work.
Dave W9DLP
@@davep6977 I have since marked zones on a nest cam’s view. I’ve got reflective tape on the weight, so even at night, the IR illumination let’s me see where it has moved to. Visual gets me very close, then SWR meter finds me the dip within a few seconds.
Looks good, but how do you tune a fish?
With a tuning fork?
What about winter time?
I’ve used it through 2 winters. Only had a problem once, & I’d say it was my fault. I reeled in from 75m to 20m while there was a lot of snow on the wires. Then it got above freezing one day, then re-froze. Wires froze to each other, and snarled backwards while I was trying to reel out to a lower band. Oops.
If it goes above freezing, reel it out to the longest band you use before it re-freezes.
Totally manageable if you pay attention to temps, forecast, and whether anything’s wet. Use common sense.
Ok it has been 2 years. Do you think it was worth the 950$? I love the idea but thats a lot of money for a wire antenna.
Very valid question; thanks for stopping by!
It IS a lot of money for a wire antenna.
It is, in my opinion (based partly of course on my discretionary income), a pretty fair price for a dozen wire antennas. Here's what I mean...
I had an EFHW for 80m. Tuned to have the lowest SWR on the FT8 freq. But I couldn't use the top end of 75m with the internal tuner of my rig. I could tune at that top end of the band with an external tuner, but could only use 300W. I couldn't go full 800W with my amp. The tuner couldn't handle that much power, and the heat in the feedline/balun would probably degrade things quickly. So 80m is really 2 bands: 80 and 75. I have to re-adjust when moving from FT8 (or CW) to the Phone segment.
So, this provides, in one unit, the ability to tune to a good enough match to use a tube amp with NO trans-match outside of it: 160, 80, 75, 60, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, & 6. (Note: 10 and 6 are also very large bands, where you're likely to re-adjust element length when moving from CW/Digital to Phone portions. Instructions for tuning 40m antennas typically ask you "What portion of the band do you use most? What PART of the band do you want it below 1.5:1?" My answer is "All of it." So really it's about 14-15 "sub-bands".)
But wait, couldn't I make a fan dipole to cover all those bands? Yes. It would take hours and hours to make all the tuning adjustments (they affect each other). Plus, I'd have an absolute spider web of paracord holding the ends of the elements out. And something like 10x the total wind loading.
If you want to only use a handful of bands, build your own dipoles; absolutely. However, I wanted to be able to go to ANY portion of ANY band, with minimum feedline loss, without going outside & fiddling with it. To me, yes, absolutely worth it.
@@kelvin0mql You've given some fair points and as long as you are happy thats great.
I was initially interested though being a tight arse I'll carry on with wire, transformers, and traps.
Thank you for the video as its a great concept.
73 de Richard 2E0IKJ
Get two tape measures
@@kf5hcr176 Well, yes. If you want to go outside, lower the center feed-point, change the element lengths, hoist it back up, check the tuning, possibly repeat it all again because you weren't quite close enough to the right length. How long would it take you to change bands? 10 minutes, if you hurry?
This system was invented by a guy who was in the military, on a freezing cold, windy, rainy night, and had to go outside to manually re-adjust an HF antenna for a frequency change. Soaked to the bone and miserable, he thought "There HAS to be a better way." This is the result.
When it's cold and rainy outside, I can change the antenna elements' lengths remotely from INSIDE. In about a minute.
Looks like a pain to use, Ida thought it would at least have a counter or other way to know where your at other than swr.
I had the same concern. But I wasn't about to pay double the price for a SteppIR.
It has worked out to not be a pain at all. I already had a Nest cam in the back yard, and I simply adjusted it so it can see the apex, and all of one element. Quick look, I know about where it's at.
Checking "where am I resonant" before transmitting is a thing I had already been used to doing. Even with a static dipole, you cannot know for sure that something didn't change out there since last time 'round. Gophers chewing. Branches falling.
If you're a good operator, you're checking stuff out before keying up QRO. This is no different.
@@kelvin0mql I was referring to a simple method to quickly get you close to the band you want. Like a satellite dish positioner. When the readout is 25 that's close to 20 meters, reads 50 your about 40meter, of course you would check resonance, that's a gimme!
I mean, the guy who invented this wanted to solve one problem: going outside to change the length, PLUS needing to lower it to do so, then raise it back up (in crappy weather, taking many minutes). And he solved it.
What's the SWR? Already had a different bit of kit for that. (And so do you.)
At what freq am I resonant? Already had a different bit of kit for that. (And so should you, 'cuz you want to know that for any/all of your antennas.)
What freq/band was I at last time I was operating? Look at the log. Or in my case, I can also just look at the antenna in the Nest cam and have a pretty good idea.
It's a big box with plenty of room for more bits-n-bobs. If you wanted to add a rotation counter, you certainly could. If you're a genuine advancing-the-art radio amateur, that's not too hard. Hell, I could do it, and I'm a relative moron (i.e. not an Extra, yet).
But if you want to go full Appliance Operator, then SteppIR is there to take a couple thousand$ off ya (and I almost bought one). That's a fair way to go. I am, for the most part, an Appliance Operator. My daily HF rig is a modern unit with (gasp) Digital Signal Processing in the IF and AF stages. I know... heresy.
At HamVention, TenTec was demonstrating this antenna WITH an inline analyzer so you could watch the Smith Chart and see right where you're at, whether you're moving closer or further from a good tune. Almost too easy.
@@mewrongway I wish I knew a way to post a photo here.
Nest Cam allows me to set up "zones" where it pays attention to activity.
I can view the Nest Cam, look at the Zones polygons, and know what band it's at. It was easy.
But even when I don't do that, it's really pretty darned easy.
If I didn't have a Nest Cam and also didn't have an Antenna Analyzer, yes, it'd be more work to sort it out. If that were the situation, there are several solutions, including putting a turn-counter of some sort in the thing.
There you go, Any good ham would have bought Ten-Tec or MFJ instead of clowning around!!
with so many improvements that can be made on this plus the motor issue, very pricey.....wait awhile and see if they do the improvements and then buy it...never ever buy the first version of something
Funny story… last fall I was riding the mower, snagged a rope, pulled so hard I flexed & snapped my mast in half. Box came crashing down. Broke & bent most of the contents of the box.
Sent it to Frank. He rebuilt it with all new stuff, including a faster/quieter motor, and 1:1 balun inside.
There’s more I would change if it was my neck on the line. But yeah, he’s made significant improvements.
I’m itching to try converting it to an adjustable vertical. Proper height on every band.
Nice but "Very Costly for $950.00
I don't disagree. If I were trying to do it myself (or trying to make a business of it), I'd be looking at all the places a less-heavy-duty piece could be used. The manufacturer warned me to pay attention to not spool the wire all the way in, as "it will tear the rings off". Well, that tells me the motor is at least 8x more powerful than it needs to be, which also means far heavier. That, times about a dozen other things.