There has been a lot of ES propagation lately. With my Bigwheel antenna for 2m I can make very nice contacts.
Since the Bigwheel is approximately 5dBi, I wanted a little more gain and especially some forward gain.
I have known for a long time about the existence of LFA antennas from Justin G0KSC.
On his site there is a 5 element version with a gain of +/- 11dBi gain and a length of 1.8m.
https://g0ksc.co.uk/2013-yagis/144mhzs/144-lfa/5el-lfa.html
I immediately thought “that’s a nice size!”
I only had 1 challenge for my situation.
The Antenna had to be as light as possible.
The construction description mentions 10 mm and 12 mm diameter as tube/round.
If I were to use this, the antenna would become much heavy.
For the radiator I use 6mm tube with 4mm rod in it for the bends.
The 4mm rods have also been pressed so that they are super tight without screws.
I also use 4mm rods for all other elements.
All clamps, both element and mast clamps, are 3D printed from PETG material with 80% infill.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6916404
I was surprised by the first measurements, super flat SWR with good coupling of all other elements.
And virtually the same result as with the specified dimensions in the original construction description.
As a first test I used a sub-optimal Choke BalUn, and the results are not bad at all!.
So the BalUn is the next thing I will tackle.
This will be a Pawsey Stub.
