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!
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