Hamstick Rotating Dipole , anyone ever make one?

[dirtyjob]

Since ive been messing with my wire dipole i was thinking of making a Hamstick Rotating Dipole, has anyone made one and used it on 10 meters?? Pretty easy to build, just need 2 hamsticks for 10 meters, the rotating dipole mount thats sold complete for 20 bucks, a mast and a cheap tv rotor,I'm gonna throw one together in a few weeks, something like this I can get in the air pretty well.

[MDYoungblood]

Here is something I drew up over 30yrs ago, I was going to make it for 11m, [Please login or register to view this link]
The thing is to work right the stud mounts have to use insulators on both sides, that way the mast and rotor don't become part of the antenna counterpoise. I would say just about any antennas will work as long as they are identical. I also added a coaxial choke so the coax doesn't become part of the antennas too.

3's

Greg

[dirtyjob]

exactly, here is a finished one i found on the net:



think i will build one and see how it performs on 10 meters.

[MDYoungblood]

It is a shame I can't zoom in on the mount, would like to see how they have it configured. I not sure but it looks like it is not hooked up, just under the antennas at the mount it looks like the PL259 connector is just hanging there.

3's

Greg

[Buzzweiser]

My dipole is currently in storage or I'd send you pictures of it but it's pretty simple to explain. Mine is a home brew made with pvc pipe and wire. I direct wired mine so there is no pl-259 up there but where it connects I could easily put one on it if I wanted to. But there is a T-connection for the pvc pipe there and that runs into varying sizes of PVC adapters to where it eventually goes to a 2" coupler. From there I have a 9' piece of 2" pvc pipe for a mast (it is stiffened inside with wood and that runs down to 10'(2 x 5's) swagged fiberglass poles into the rotor. (I can add 20 more feet of fiberglass poles if I'd like as well but seldom do) It was designed to be portable so I use a drive over stand that's 5' tall and the rotor is mounted on top of that. Unless the winds are over 25 it works just fine. On rare occasions that I set up in heavier winds or while camping I have a special mount that attaches to the luggage rack of the van to add more stability to the mast. The top of my van is 8'6" and on the end of the stabilizer is a 18" 2 1/4" (might be 2 1/2") piece of pvc that slips over the fiberglass mast. This makes it pretty stable when it's windy, I've had it up in winds over 40. The antenna itself weighs less than 5lbs. The antenna covers well from 27.205 up to about 28.770 with excellent swr's and beyond those points with moderate swr's. Bought the old rotor and control at a garage sale for 5 bucks. PVC is cheap. I've worked the EU several times with it and Australia a few times too. A horizontal dipole is my personal pick for a cheap and very easy dx antenna. Hands down for what they are they can't be beat.

[yamaha]

I built one for CBRT Daveman927 and it works surprisingly good. first real test of TX was to a Californian from North Carolina.. that was with it mounted 4 ft off the ground while doing some t-n-t (test and tune).
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Sunday, 01 September 2013, 15:08 PM

PS: Save the hamsticks for a good back scratcher, plant stakes, fire poker, or homebrew a kite,,, that's all i would use it for

[dirtyjob]

I remember when you made that, did you ever raise it and did you ad a rotor to it, if so what was the performance like at that point? also was this for 11 meters or were you able to use it on 10 meters?

[231]

Sure...I've done simple mobile antenna dipoles before. I did a couple of hamstiks for 75m too. It worked okay for what it was. But a shorty loaded dipole worked WAY better. On 10m or even 11m using a couple of good shorty mobile antennas (preferably the same) works great! Of course a couple of 102" whips will be a good full sized dipole for 10/11m too. I've done those as well.

Hamstiks are sort of fun because they are easy. BUT...the most common problem with them is the solder joint breaking at the base. Usually fixable. That and the 75m versions are so narrow banded that a tuner is a smart move to move a few kc's either direction of dip point.

231

[443 Arizona]

looks like we all built almost the same ant. mine was rotatable simply by turning the 21' pole (straps were not tight to the post i had it mounted to).
it was good in 4 different aspects,
its horz. position was not as susceptable to the various other vertical signal noises.
(ANYthing vertical with conduction properties reflects "noise").
it was directional, meaning off the side worked for local and off the end was sort of a narrow gain ,very skipable.
i had at on time added a double shielded coax, (coming down from the pole)sort of simulating an inverted"L" antenna. that didn't work as well so i messed around with that aspect until i got it trimmed just right, sort of a 1/4 wave balun?
(brain fuzz, where's my coffee).
it also worked good for scanning for other signals.
i did have a PL connector in it, perfectly fixtured so that the leads on it were as short as possible,
SWR was flat. the ohms i cant remember but i think they were about 26,,,???
and when i wasn't looking, 200 sparrows would use it as their tweeting post.