A New Hex Beam

This blog, much like my entire life, has an identity crisis.  It kind of started out as a ham radio blog then became an on-line diary.  Today, however, we are going to go back and talk radio some.

A couple of years ago, I purchased a Mosley three-element tri-bander antenna.  It covers three bands: 20, 15, and 10 meters.  It worked fine until about four months ago when the SWR went to pot on 20 and 15.  Because it still works fine on 10 meters, I was sure that the problem is at a trap but I had not laid the tower down to check it yet.

The other day, after running an OMISS net on 17 meters, I decided I needed to do something so I acquired a 6-band hexagonal beam from KIO in Alabama.  Apparently, the phrase "hex beam" is copyrighted by someone else because KIO is careful to call theirs "hexagonal beams".  Anyway, this beam looks like an upside down umbrella frame.  A friend suggested that if it were mounted lower, she could use it to dry her delicates.  Perhaps the rf energy would help.

A very nice feature of it is that it covers 6 bands without using a tuner: 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, and 6 meters.  It also uses only one feedline which is very nice when you are shelling out big bucks for coax.

The hex beam is basically a two-element beam on all bands where the driven element is in the shape of a "W" and the reflector is in a horseshoe shape around it.  Being a two-element beam, it is not going to have the directional characteristics that a larger antenna would have but, as the old saying goes, you can't have everything.

Yesterday I took the Mosley down and put the hex beam up in its place.  I know that the World is full of anecdotal stories but here is one for this antenna.  There is a gentleman who lives in Florida, Dick, KI4QMB, who has a penchant for running one watt on the OMISS nets.  I'm not a big QRP (or low power) fan but many people are and that diversity is what makes ham radio so much fun.  At any rate, I had NEVER heard Dick on 20 meters, not even a peep, until yesterday with that new hex beam.  Not only could I hear him but we were able to have a QSO!

Now to fgure out what happened to the Mosley and fix it!

Vacation, 2013

I know that this is kind of like breaking out the vacation pictures and forcing everyone to look at them but our just-completed trip was a hoot and I want to tell you about it.

For the past several years, we have gone to Colorado to escape the summer heat but, for several reasons, we decided this year to go to Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The National Forest Service in Colorado has gotten "stinky" about camping in their campgrounds, to the point of making us decide to go somewhere else.

When we started talking about the U.P, our friends, Mary and Luther, indicated that they would like to go with us.  We decided to leave on July 17.  We got the motorhomes ready and prepared for the trip.  Our first stop was to be Wallace State Park in Missouri and that was the "kickoff" of our trip.

Our next stop was Clear Lake, Iowa.  For "rock and roll" fans, you know that this was the site of Buddy Holly's last concert before his death in a plane crash.  He, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson ("The Big Bopper", were killed when their plane left Clear Lake.  A side note is that Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup who were also members of the band but were not on the plane that crashed.  Many years later, we had the pleasure of meeting Tommy Allsup in Mannford; he was a friend of a good friend of ours, Faye Carroll.  We also toured the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa, and got to watch Winnebago motorhomes being made.

Our next stop was Minneapolis where we went to the largest shopping mall in the United States, Mall of America.  Luther and I weren't thrilled with it but Mary and Louise were.  We also paid a visit to the nearby IKEA store which is amazing.

The next stop was Duluth, Minnesota.  Although I had been there on business several times, I had never been impressed with the city.  Being on vacation was different, however.  We found a campground right on the water.  In fact, our motor home was backed up right to the water on the pier.

One of the highlights of our trip was seeing the parade of "tall ships" come through Duluth.  We were close enough to walk from our campground to the channel to see them.  These are mostly replicas of the sailing ships of the 1700's and 1800's.

From Duluth, we went to Grand Marais, Minnesota for a couple of days where we camped in wilderness area.  We took a side trip while there to Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Then we were off to Copper Harbor, Michigan, a peninsula in northern Michigan.  We spent four days there and the scenery was beautiful.

From Copper Harbor, we went to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan for three days.  A highlight of our visit there was a boat tour through the Soo Locks and back through the Canadian side.  Once again, we were parked in an RV park right on the water.

After leaving the Soo, we went to St. Ignace, Michigan.  St. Ignace is a tourist town on the north end of the Mackinac Bridge and is a ferry ride away from Mackinac Island.  Mackinac Island is a famous tourist spot and is known for its lack of gasoline powered vehicles.  Everything on the island is "horse driven".  By the way, "Mackinac" is pronounced "Mackinaw" - I don't know why, it just is.

After we left St. Ignace, we spent a couple of days getting to Elkhart, Indiana.  Luther and Mary's motor home was made in Elkhart and we took a tour of their factory.  We also had some good Amish food to eat there!

After a couple more leisurely days of driving through Illinois and Missouri, we got back home on August 16. All in all, it was a fantastic vacation.  I must admit that Luther and I both did some minor body damage to our motor homes but all that can be fixed!

OK, I promise you I won't do any more of these vacation rambles until the next trip!