2 Meter VHF Halo Antenna Assembly And Testing
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- You can purchase this antenna from Moonraker.eu via the following link:
www.moonraker....
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One of the first antennas I ever made was a homebrew 2m halo. I made it with some aluminum tubing from an old folding chair!
First thing I noticed was that smaller square tubing , wouldn't that be installed inside of the larger tube to help prevent crushing ? Just wondering as most manufacturers don't like to waste material.
There are Halos available with an SO239 Socket already in place; no soldering necessary!
What sort of gain are we looking at with this?
FYI, this antenna will show a DC short, this is normal and the antenna is tunable by opening or closing the gap in the halo (Thank you Chris and Dean at Moonraker).
According to the website photo, shown in this video. The manufacture had left the small block of square tubing installed. You had it right, the first time! I suppose that would allow for running the antenna in a vertical or horizontal position (or even at an angle!).
I would love a follow up video, to know how the antenna has performed. I am interested in installing a halo antenna at my home, due to its small size.
Unfortunately I left this at my last property, but I ran it from the roof, with just rubbish RG58, horizontal, and it out performed the Co-Linear. If I had better coax it would of been even better.
@@TechMindsOfficial Oh NO! I wonder if the new owners, would let you go back and get it? Ha ha.
They probably are trying to pick up TV channels with it!?
So, how do you tune this antenna? I didn’t see you checking the VSWR. Thanks.
I would have thought 2 extra nuts would make it more secure and give a better electrical connection...... on the screw on the driven element... lock the screw to the halo & the element with 'em , hope that makes sense 🙄😂
😎👍☘️
It does and I will bear in mind when it goes up in the air :)
Or could make a copper halo better electricity conductor so it should trsnmit and receive loads better aluminium has rubbish conductivity
I would be interested to see how this antenna would perform raised properly on your roof. Did you ever get around to doing that?
I am looking at a similar idea now fir 2m SSB; the Wimo Big Wheel. They can be stacked and offer around +3Db gain when used that way.
The PAR two meter horizontal loop is much better built.
Great Video Matt, that's a good antenna, I live in a home owner association restrictions and I might try that antenna, thanks and 73!
top class video, have you tried stacking 2 of them together?
Not yet, I need to get some more because I left this at my last QTH.
Great video Matt, factual, concise and well presented. Good work.
Thank you for your kind comment 👌
Nice build! Maybe you want to try a lambda loop fed with a J-feed. I made some interesting experience with that on 70cm.
Hi, noticed that the image in the Moonraker advert had the dipole mounted vertically. They had used the fixings in a different way. I guess this would enable the user to change the antenna direction? Great video and thanks for sharing...I'm about to set mine up today (M7WPH)
I’m pretty sure it changes the polarisation mounting it as per the Moonraker photo. I wanted horizontal so that’s how I mounted mine :) thanks for watching 👍
@@TechMindsOfficial
Interesting that when the Halo was mounted vertically it became directional. A bit like a Yagi. I was getting out to Kent really well from Essex. Nothing to the North though. Noticed the difference since setting up the X-50 on the chimney. I had a lot of problems when mounting horizontally getting the Halo SWR down. Did you get your coax sorted in the end??
Will M7WPH
I bought one put it on a 30 foot pole absolutely useless poorly built antenna ,my fault as they say you get what you pay for whoops .
I have mine up on the chimney now, it appears to work okay, but I don’t have anything else horizontal to compare it with.
That antenna is called a squalo
I’m led to believe there is a theoretical difference of 26dB between horizontal and vertical polarisation - which matches your observations.
"folded dipole" lol! it isnt a dipole at all.
Your videos are the best. Thank you.
Glad you like them!
Great video. Another subscriber has joined the flock.
Thanks Ben! I hope you enjoy my past and future content 👍
If you wire brush the aluminium bits with Vaseline, there will be zero oxidation where the parts meet.
good morning 👍🏻🤝 I wanted to ask you how you are getting on with the Halo antenna? Thank you very much and have a good day
Well, I since moved from the property and it got left on the chimney! However, when I installed it on the chimney, in a H polorisation, I fed it with RG58, the worst coax to use for VHF. However it received H transmissions way stronger than my V Co-Linear which was fed with RG213. So yep, it works really well I want to get another one for my new QTH.
good morning and thanks for the reply, do you recommend it in horizontal polarization for USB? Unfortunately I don't have much space for antennas
I have stacked 2m loops and when I transmit, my ft 991a shows 1.5 to 2.0 swr BUT my external meter says 1.1
Nice video, but the antenna really is junk. I have one so, sadly, I know. Caveat Emptor - I should have researched it before purchase! SWR of around 2 or more is bad, and could not lower it satisfactorily by bending the 'arms'. There must be something better on the market that achieves an SWR of 1.2 or 1.3, or at least below 1.5. I wonder if you still have yours? I might bet that you don't! After trying multiple times to get an acceptable SWR by bending the arms back and forth, one broke off due to metal fatigue! I then cobbled together the parts into an "S" shape dipole and with some fiddling an tweaking, I got the SWR to about 1.5:1 Anyway, a very good video production and thanks for the effort and sharing. 73, Mike.
I have the 2 meter and 6 meter loop I used it for this weekend VHF/UHF contest and the SWR on my Yaesu 857D was showing a flat match and full out put power
MY biggest problem was getting RF into the modulation of the radio which was causing a hum in the modulation so aI need to figure that out
I believe the maximum acceptable VSWR should be 1.5. The fact that you were getting VSWR = 2 suggests a design fault. (If your feeder cable is lossy, that would artificially *improve* the measured VSWR !). Why was it necessary to discard the "little metal block"? Let's say you were right. So the manufacturer is a nut case. I can see that the long arm of the "gamma match" is not long enough and the thread of the fixing screw is exposed. Looks like they are really careless.
YC0LOG, qst from Jakarta west
I bought one of these and it resonated at 137 mc/s. Had a refund, made my own again. Be interested on your findings.
Hi how about some size for us way out not close so we can build,thanks Pieter
perfect
With that connection on the back you take off, I am wondering why it is there. It does not seem to have a purpose but it's included. Mind you, they do show it on their site from the photo so it must be of some use?
It’s possibly for packaging? Maybe to keep it sturdy? Not sure but I removed it lol
Have you an update to you moving the loop further up?
Yes, I installed on my chimney and it works extremely well being above the roofline, even with crappy RG58 feeder it out performs my vertical for horizontal polarisation!
Try to make the shield and hot the same length on the cable or just a n connector kg6mn
Gama matched halo?
swr are high
I wonder if it would work better than a whip if mounted on top of a car.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that if a halo is mounted 'too low' over a ground plane (car roof?) the polarity becomes vertical.
Great video, thanks
Great video. Can I just point out electrical tape you have to stretch it to stick properly. My ocd kicked in when you was wrapping that tap round.
Thanks! And no worries on the OCD, if you notice I did pull it tight as I wrapped the last bit round, but this was just a temporary install until I get it up onto the chimney. I’ll do a special tape tightening video just for you 😂😂 Just joking mate, thanks for watching! 👌
Lol... I'm glad I wasn't the only one who had their OCD kick in with the tape..
What about 80cm?
Greetings from Sweden 🇸🇪
You Sir just got yourself a new subscriber 🤖
Welcome and thank you 🙏
Did you notice that on the picture on moonraker the antenna is mounted like you did in the first place ?
Yeh the photo on the website is mounted if you want Vertical polarisation, as I need horizontal I mounted it like I did in the video :)
@@TechMindsOfficial oh off course i'm dumb thank you
Hi Matt - there’s very little that Moonraker could get wrong with this construction (which is unusual for them!) and your assembly is certainly more elegant than that shown on the Moonraker website advertisement. The only question/comment is: does having the holding bracket inside the loop (as opposed to outside) affect SWR or radiation pattern - although I would suggest no, or at least inconsequential.
By the way - G8RWG (in QSO with you) was correct in his forecast of a possible Es (Sporadic-E) opening coming UK’s way. “Lift” conditions certainly did arise for me on Friday 21st June on both VHF and UHF and lasted for 8 days until Saturday 29th June, during which time both VHF (144/145 MHz band) and UHF (433 MHz band) were alive with European stations. However, owing to the number of long distance UHF contacts I was making, I would suggest this was a tropospheric propagation opening rather than Es, particularly as I had a two-minute contact with a couple of French stations on PMR446 channel 8 (446.09375 MHz) on 500mw (½ watt) and THEY WERE IN THE PYRANEES - France/Spain border - taking part in a PMR446 contest using standard hand-held PMR radios! My scanner was constantly stopping on French-speaking PMR446 channels throughout the day.
Nice video, Matt - I might be tempted myself to purchase. One can’t really make the antenna any cheaper oneself. Iain.
Thanks the nice comment Iain, I’m still waiting to get the halo up in the air properly! I know it isn’t going to compare to a dedicated beam for 2M but at least it will give me horizontal polarisation and it will be omnidirectional. I’m not sure whether the radiation pattern or SWR would be effected by having the mounting pole within the halo itself. I did get some advice from Chris, G0WTZ that I should be able to improve the SWR by adjusting the gap between the two elements. Whether that’s the case of tightening the driven element tighter or slightly bending the halo in and out. Once I have my ladder man here I’ll be fine tuning it and will report back the results. I think for the price it’s definitely something worth while purchasing if anyone has a required for what the halo offers. Thanks again for your comment and hope you enjoy future videos! Matt M0DQW
Rubbish connection setup those silly little plastic boxes what a cheapo nasty way of doing it , should be an "N Type " connection probaly be better round as well instead of square i remember those horrible things the Quagis Humm the mounting as well once again using that horrible Cheapo plastic thing HUmm got some work to yet on them yet they have .
Hi..can i get the measurement of this..thanks 73
I’d love to be able to help but mine is now installed on a chimney. Drop Moonraker.eu an email.
@@TechMindsOfficial Nice...so..euh...we're about to get to see the real on-air test, antenna plot etc soon ? ;-)
I'm curious, cuz swr 1:2 aint gonna do it for me.
That’s a good idea. In fact I was listening on it at a recent UK SSB contest and switching between the halo and a vertical antenna I could definitely say the halo worked better for horizontal polarised signals.
What happened to keeping tail lenghts the same when you split and connect a coax it would be even better if it had an N Type connector on it and wy oh why do people STILL use PL259 rubbish .
Thank you for this video. Can I ask when you mounted it permanently did you add a 1:1 Balun or a choke of any kind ?
Great antenna
Nice little antenna there, waiting for more tests, can you make a SWR plot also.
Thanks :) Yep, once it’s up in the clear I’ll do another report on its performance. 👌