Well I finally did it, after 4 years of thinking about it, I finally got my Yagi up on our hill here where it should be. The biggest problem was always feeding it. I couldn't afford ultra low loss feedline, but even using a reasonable cost RG213 feed the loss is at 8 db which is a big loss of RX singal and TX power. Then I stumbled across the RM Italy 'pre amps' and that solved the loss issues at a reasonible price (when placed at the antenna).

So, I bought 150M of RG213, added it to 65M I already had, bought 250M of 3core house wire for the rotator, a second hand Yagi off Ebay and found old bits of poly pipe here there and everywhere.

It was a big job getting it all up a 150M hill, on foot in 30+C heat, feeding the coax and 3core through the pipes and securing it all. The first night I left some of the coax running up the hill outside the poly pipe. The next morning I went back and found Wombats got to it and broke the outer braid in two places. I was worried that might happen and even went out with the torch about midnight to check.

I fixed that, then I tried to install the Yagi on a 12M mast, which consisted of 6M of Yatch mast and 6M of 40mm aluminium, but when I tried to get the mast up, one end stayed on the ground, there was just way too much flex in the 40mm section, so I hit it with the hack saw and ended up with 7M of mast.

I finally got it up in a 35 Knot wind just before dark after three days of work on it. One day after it was up one of the elements seems to be a little bit bent, but performance is still fine. I think it was one or more of those noisy Cockatoos sitting on it.

Am I any fitter from climbing up and down a 150M hill 50 times? Not sure. I am sorer? Yep sure am, but it's all worth it and it was good fun ...hehe

Anyway, here are some pics,

Yagi about to go up, wind is doing 35 knots
View of the Yagi from down near the shack
Yagi ont the hill
Magic Box
Wally the Wombats work

Cheers,
Steve
43SW01