Completed 2m EME Antenna System

Our new 2m EME Antenna System has been performing very well. One area that we noticed that could use improvement was the alignment of our antennas as we move them in the Elevation plane. The problem is caused by the weight of the coax feedlines running from the antenna feed points to the power dividers on our H-Frame assembly. Our H-Frame assembly includes T-Braces to support the coax feedlines but the T-Braces tended to bend and distort the alignment of our antennas as the Elevation Rotator is moved.

Custom H-Frame Truss System

Matt at XX-Towers and Robert at M2 Antenna Systems helped us to come up with a very nice custom solution to solve these alignment problems. The solution consists of two additional truss cables on each of the H-Frame’s T-Brace assemblies. The truss cables are made from Phillystran Cable which is non-conductive and is adjusted via Turnbuckles that are anchored at the center of the H-Frame’s Vertical Risers. This approach minimizes any metal in locations that would affect the pattern of our antennas.

Cross Boom Extension

The first truss is mounted on a short custom extension on each end of our H-Frame’s Cross Boom and is run to an eye bolt in the center of each T-Brace Vertical Rod.

T-Brace Main Truss

These risers stabilize the tendency for the T-Brace Vertical Assembly to flex and move towards the center of the H-Frame when the full weight of the coax cables are bearing on them at various elevation angles. Careful adjustment of the combination of these new Truss Cables and the existing 45-degree T-Brace Horizontal Support Assemblies results in the rear of each antenna boom staying perfectly aligned as we rotate our antennas in elevation.

T-Brace Rear Truss

The other problem that our custom Truss Solution addresses is the tendency for the weight of the coax cables to bend the rear of the antenna booms down when the antennas are at 0-degrees in elevation. The bending is due to the weight of the coax cables on the T-brace being unsupported and bearing down on the rear of the antenna booms. This problem is solved by a second Phillystran truss cable that runs from the metal section of each Vertical Riser assembly to the junction between the rear of the bottom antenna booms and the associated junction of the Vertical T-Brace Assemblies.

We fastened the Phillystan cables directly to the junction point without the use of any metal hardware to ensure that the pattern of our antennas was not affected. These secondary Trusses now carry all of the weight of the coax cables on the T-brace as the antennas approach at 0-degrees in elevation and have eliminated the bending at the rear of our antenna booms.

With these modifications, our antennas remain perfectly aligned at any elevation angle. There is also noticeably less stress on the fiberglass sections of the Vertical Riser Assemblies since they are no longer carrying the load of the coax cables.

Next Steps

We have a dual-channel coherent SDR receiver from Afedri in hand which will allow us to do Adaptive Polarity using MAP65. We will be upgrading our station hardware and software to support Adaptive Polarity in the near future.

Our initial experience with operating our new 2m EME station will be covered in the next article in this series.

You can read more about our EME station project via the links that follow:

• EME Station 2.0 Part 1 – Goals and Station Design
• EME Station 2.0 Part 2 – Excavation, Footings, and Conduits for New Tower
• EME Station 2.0 Part 3 – Phase Tuned Receive Coax Cables
• EME Station 2.0 Part 4 – New EME Tower Is Up!
• EME Station 2.0 Part 5 – Control Cables and Rotator Controller
• EME Station 2.0 Part 6 – Tower Grounding System
• EME Station 2.0 Part 7 – Building Antennas
• EME Station 2.0 Part 8 – Elevation Rotator Assembly and Sub-System Test
• EME Station 2.0 Part 9 – H-Frame Assembly
• EME Station 2.0 Part 10 – Antennas On The Tower
• EME Station 2.0 Part 11 – Station Hardware in Shack
• EME Station 2.0 Part 12 – Station Software

If you’d like to learn more about How To Get Started in EME, check out the Nashua Area Radio Society Tech Night on this topic. You can find the EME Tech Night here.

Fred, AB1OC