19 Element Tonna Beam

Well I ordered this the other day and it came today. After putting up T&K brackets tonight ready for tomorrow I set to work on building the Tonna beam. Very easy indeed and didn't take very long to work out what went where. Just hope I get a good SWR when I test it tomorrow.

I will have to say to my neighbours that its my new digital TV antenna and that everyone is going to have to get one in the near future.

The things I do to get a better signal from GB7WP!!!

that is HUGE,i was going to surgest telling them it is a tv aerial.if you want to try simplex give us a bell

Well the first tests were not great. SWR is 1.1 or less so thats not a problem, I have mounted it on a fiberglass top section which is connected to a 14ft pole. The antenna is not very high at the moment but I still have some things to try / sort out today and then I can mount it another 6ft.

Picture of the beam is on my website on it's pole...

Takew a look and let me know what you think... I have not given it much testing yet but put a new N-Type connector on the RG213-U and put the antenna higher and signals have gone up.

Just hope it was worth it!!!

Dave
www.MW3VSG.co.uk

Got the beam working better than the vertical tonight. After playing around with the antennas I have found out its the Antenna Switcher that is the problem so will be taking it apart and cleaning it...

Should have built a 70cm bowtie beam.
The bowtie is about the same gain as a 13 element beam.
Also a damm site smaller.

Andy G6OHM

Regarding the switch box.
Even though they say they work to 1000 mhz they are very lossey.
Put a meter on the other side of the switch box and look at the power output.Then check the power without a switch box.
Here at G6OHM i don't use switch boxes as i use filters i have a patch lead from the rig and plug in to my various 2m antennas.My 70cm rig plugs straight into my Kenwood TS2000.

Andy G6OHM

Thanks Andy for the info. I wanted the best gain I could get for the money I wanted to spend. I was looking at them all and thinking what was best for my needs.

The beam has no rotator and is pointing directly to the Wirral GB7WP D-Star repeater and now works very well.

The antenna switch is labled for the bin. Well I will open it and have a look but my thoughts are the same as yours. If you don't need it inline then don't put it on.

Dave