The Ultimate 3-Element 11 M Yagi Antenna Part-4

[00:00:00]Hi guys and gals, Greg How, S9 Radio. As always, thanks for tuning in and tagging along. And for those of you that have been anxiously, and I should add patiently, awaiting the next episode of the Mako M103 makeover, welcome back to part four. Thanks again for your patience. And I thought I had this covered last summer, but it was really important that I be able to implement these optimized dimensions on an actual Mako M103 for several reasons. Number one, even though the optimized dimensions worked out great on my beam antenna, it has a composite non-metallic boom that yields zero structure loss.

[00:00:46]A structure loss is a parasitic bleed that occurs with metallic non-radiating things such as booms and hardware like this.

[00:00:56]So once again, so I could give you, you know, right off this video, accurate dimensions with no wiggle room, no fussing around. It was important I actually had an M103. The other reason it was very important, even though the spec sheets online told me the boom was 141 inches long and Mako was only using 135 inches of this boom, I needed to know exactly how much or how big this canvas could really be. You know, could I get these elements if I reverse the brackets all the way out to the end of the boom with having the U-bolt slightly inside where it's not going to, you know, crush the boom when you tighten it down? The answer is yes. I've got 141 and 1/2 inches of boom space I can work with. Once again, Mako only utilized 135 inches. Generally, a longer boom on a directional antenna equates to more gain.

[00:01:58]Um, we'll see what the uh computer spits out as far as the actual numbers. I'm not sure. I've run a couple rough models that I've actually got up there right now working wonderfully. A very quiet design. And another reason I needed the actual Mayko is the tubing element design on the antenna I've got has a taper between the element sections. Um, and that Like I say, everything just needs to be exact. Much like a Formula 1 racing engine, if you're off just a tiny little bit, that can equate to a huge performance loss. Now, in the case of these optimized antennas, you've got a fair amount of wiggle room and latitude as far as your dimensioning and the gain go. In other words, if, you know, if you get the measurements off just a tiny bit, you're still going to maintain the gain. What's going to come unraveled really quickly is a beautifully clean and quiet lobe pattern, the radiation pattern, in which I've been a boisterous and outspoken advocate of this design philosophy for almost three decades now.

[00:03:10]And it's nice to see a few of the better amateur radio antenna manufacturers finally jumping on board and getting in line with this design philosophy. As it used to be, um, it was all the advertisements, you know, claiming they had the superior gain, they had the most gain. Now, the better antenna manufacturers are claiming they have a low noise radiation pattern. And what this means, it means all of your transmitted energy is going where it's supposed to go, out the front of the antenna, instead of little bits of it creeping out the side or the back due to a crappy front-to-back ratio. As a matter of fact, the majority of yesteryear's antenna designs, especially those with higher gain um, were absolutely atrocious. You look at the ass end of the antenna, the reflector end of the antenna, and it looked much like a 4th of July sparkler with all kinds of wasted transmitted energy creeping out the sides, sneaking out the back door, and the same thing holds true with the receive capacity antenna. Now you've got all these unwanted signals creeping in the side and the back of the antenna, and this was a real problem for me during solar 24 as my amateur radio antennas were all designed and optimized from the get-go, but I had a couple old-school beams, a three-element and a six-element, that were done using the old Yagi-Uda formulas, and I'm in California and I'm trying to work weak signal work into Europe, Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries over there with just a handful of operators and rarely even on the air, and I've got these South American stations creeping in the side door taking out these very weak European stations.

[00:04:54]That is no longer a problem with the optimized design. My big bamboo five-element quad optimized, I hear what I want and where I want.

[00:05:03]It's really that simple.

[00:05:05]So there's a lot more to antenna design than just forward gain. Let alone the fact in parts two and three I mentioned I'm surrounded by power lines on three sides, three sides. So that should make for a really interesting comparison of the Maeco M-103 box stock dimensions versus the same antenna with the optimized dimensions, and if there's going to be any difference in noise, this would be the place to hear it. So stay tuned on that. So with all that being said, once again, I've got the very processor intense antenna modeling program running as the The optimized designs were based on having 139 in of usable boom space to work with. Now actually having a physical M103 here in my hands, I can see I've got a little more room to work with. So I've blown that number out to 141 in which the computer is currently modeling. And I'm not looking for any improvement on the front to back ratio or the low pattern. Those two items are about as good as they'll ever get. What I am looking for, I should say hoping for, is to find a couple tenths of a dB in additional forward gain. And slow down you armchair quarterbacks, I'm sure they're thinking, "Oh, you can you're never going to be able to hear that difference. You can only see it on analytical equipment." And I say BS.

[00:06:31]Find a local station 50 mi away and tell me you can't hear that couple tenths of a dB in forward gain improvement. As a matter of fact, find a station on the fringes. I don't care if they're only 10 mi away. And I guarantee you that couple tenths of a dB in forward gain improvement can make or break that communication. With the bottom line being, why wouldn't you? That's what this exercise is all about. Eking every iota performance out of these small three element Yagi's. And I realize many of you are running these for one reason or another. With the larger beams having more gain where you may not notice a couple tenths of a dB. But I'll tell you right now, even on my larger beam antenna designs, I'm happy if I can find a tenth of a dB in additional forward gain per day. That's right. I work these designs right up to the limit. And that's what this whole video is about.

[00:07:33]Is working these little three element beams right up to the maximum performance envelope. Okay, this concludes part four of the M103 makeover and redesign and I wish I could have had all the optimized dimensions to everybody last year when solar cycle 25 was really hopping giving everybody plenty of time to experience the wonders of a high performance low noise optimized antenna on a worldwide plane field but perfecting performance usually takes a fair amount of time something I fell short of last year but stick with the program. I promise you you can build a better antenna than you can go out and buy. As a matter of fact, I'd be quite surprised if there were any 11 meter manufacturers involved or offering anything in regards to the 21st century optimized high performance low noise designs. Okay guys and gals, thanks for hanging in there and yes, there is definitely a method to this madness in regards to this rather slow and methodical design approach often times having a rather long path to perfection which is not unusual. It usually does take a fair amount of time to perfect performance and this design philosophy is actually worked out quite well throughout my career regardless of the engineering discipline whether it be professional motorsports or antennas, these designs can almost always be found in the winner's circle. Case in point, here in Southern California, we have an annual antenna competition known as Burning Ham with most of the major antenna manufacturers being represented.

[00:09:14]I have taken home top honors and first place for 10 years in a row. I finally quit going because it wasn't a competition for me. Anyways, we've had attendees traveling from as far away as 3,000 miles to watch the Super Loop brand put the smack down on the competition. And with that, I'm going to say, as always, thanks for tuning in and tagging along. Part five of this M103 makeover series should be dropping shortly after Father's Day as soon as I get the dimensions off the computer and up in the air and prove out the design, I will be releasing them for you guys to have some fun with. So anyway, stay tuned once again 73 Greg How S9 Radio.