Welcome to my Amateur radio web site.

Note: If you come here (my QTH) to see these antennas up on the towers.

Most of them are only put up during the summer months for VHF/UHF contest.

Mother nature likes to push the limits here when it comes to bad weather.

A Derecho (inland hurricane) hit Iowa in 2020 and all my antennas were damaged.

So I'm always trying new antennas. You never know what I will put up next.

Enjoy looking at these pictures below. Hope to have more as antenna work continues.

73 all, Dan, N0URW.   

Below is my antenna setup as of August 6th, 2022.  Rohn 55 tower 65 feet tall.

2 x 18xxx M2 - 144 MHz yagi on one side of the H - Frame. Top at 72 ft. lower at 58 ft. Other side of H-frame. Top is M2 - 432-9WL at 72 ft. Bottom is M2 - 222-5WL at 58 ft.

These are all clones since I can't afford the actual antennas from M2

When the contests are over this year, everything will be taken down over the winter for safe keeping and for upgrades for next year. (putting up 4 x 432-9WL on this tower next year)

Picture below is my new 9 element 6 meter yagi. Finished building this on Aug. 8th 2022 The boom is triple wall thick and 50 feet long. It is a clone of a M2 - 6M9KHW.

I could not afford the price of a real 9 element from M2, So I made my own.

The element diameters, and spacing are the same as M2 are. Works great for SSB, FT8, MSK144, contesting, working band openings, & chit chat. I left room above it for my

homebrew 144 MHz yagi that will be used over the winter months. It just a little yagi.

13 elements at 32 foot long boom. It's one of the yagi's removed from the 8 bay array.

                                       Pictured below is my FM set up.

                                     9 element yagi for 146 to 148 MHz (homebrew)

                            4 element rear mount yagi for 222 to 224 MHz (homebrew)

                              4 x 6 element rear mount yagi for 440 MHz (homebrew)

                             (sorry for the lousy picture, I will get a better one soon)

               The cross boom is mounted to the mast pipe at 38 feet above the ground

        The antennas are not pointing up, it is just the strange angle the picture was taken

             I left space above the cross boom so I can mount vertical omni antennas

Below you will see pictures and descriptions of antennas from the past.

I really enjoyed having these up, but mother nature had plans to destroy them.

Picture below is my Mega 7 element  6 meter yagi. I designed this myself. The boom is 40 feet long. Also the boom is triple wall thick. The elements are 1-1/2 inch in diameter.

Flat swr from 50 to 51 MHz. Can hear the really weak ones. Lots of wind load. Only used it for JuLy CQ VHF contest 2022. Took it down a week after the contest so I could put up the 9.

Picture below is my 2016 summer project. This is a 9 element 6 meter yagi.

Boom length was 61 feet. Mounted at 60 feet above ground on a Rohn 55 tower.

It worked fantastic for the June and July VHF contest.

In 2018 I took this down to make it work better. It worked great the way it was, but after months of computer work,

I found I could make it work much better, 3 dB better.  I added more boom to make it 64 feet long and moved all the elements to new locations. Yes, it works much better now.   I designed and built this myself. The elements were 3/4 inch diameter. I had upper and side gussets on this. The wind got under it and folded it over on top of itself when Mother nature destroyed this in August 2020...140 MPH winds broke it in half. I really like using this and will miss using it. The Yaesu 2800 rotator was also destroyed. Ouch !!!

Below is my 2015 summer project, 8 - 13 el. yagi's on 2 meters 

Each yagi is 32 ft. long, stacked at 14 ft. vertical, 15 ft. horizontal.

I used 50 ft. of Rohn 25 for the horizontal support.

How much gain does it have? A boat load. Array is at 70 ft. above the ground.

I had to take this down after a 105 MPH wind hit it . What a bummer !

The horizontal support tower bent right at the center.

It was the first time I have seen 1 inch thick aluminum mast plates bend.

 Picture below is 4 - 6 element, 24 foot long boom home brew yagi antennas on a Rohn 55 tower.

The tower is 60 feet tall which puts the antenna's at a great height. (takeoff angles)

After years of testing different antennas, I was happy with this setup.

This was the best working array I have ever had for 6 meters. I worked several counties on ssb with this.

(Best part was they called me during contests) The H-frame is made from Rohn 25 tower sections.

Mother nature said I couldn't keep this and a F3 tornado hit it head on. (I swear Mother nature hates me)

The Rohn 55 Tower was undamaged, but all 4 antennas broke right at the mast plate.

One half of one antenna (12 foot section) was never found.

The Rohn 25 H-frame was twisted pretty bad, and the big boy rotator PST-61 was destroyed.

Can you see the elevator at the top of the tower everything is mounted on ?

This made it much easier to assemble the array and work on if needed.

Even with this array lowered all the way down, I still needed to use my bucket truck to reach the top antennas.

144 Mhz Array   Built date 5/15/2005

8 homebrew yagi's            Taken down 5/1/2011

11 elements on each yagi

each yagi is 24 feet long

This array is mounted on a Rohn 55 tower 70 feet up. It works very well for just about everything, including contests.

An elevator (my design) was installed so the entire array can be lowered to the ground for repairs.The tower also has a hinge base so I can tilt it over if need be. The two vertical mast pipes on the H-frame are

3-1/2 diameter 3/16 thick wall, spun aluminum tubing. Very heavyduty and strong

(used for overhead street lights in most cities)

50 Mhz Array

4 homebrew yagi's

5 elements on each yagi

each yagi is 14 feet long

This array is also mounted on Rohn 55 tower.

You can see part of the elevator around the top of the tower. This allows me to lower the entire array to the ground for repairs.

This tower also has a hinge base so I can tilt it over.

Antennas are up around 65 feet.

As soon as the weather turns nice

I will take this down

Array taken down as of May 1st,2011

Even with elevators installed on each antenna array,

When they are lowered all the way down,

the top antennas are still up at 20 to 30

feet. I needed some way to reach them.

I picked this bucket truck up at a local going

out of business auction.

It goes up to 55 feet.

Works great for antenna work.

Now if I could only find time to paint it.

All my towers are designed to tilt over at the base.

I needed some thing big enough for the job.

I picked this up at a local auction.

It has no trouble lowering or lifting my towers.

It also works great for lifting my arrays up to mount them on to the elevators.

I think this is a 1946 Studebaker

The boom extends up and out to 30 feet above the ground.

I work up on the tower while the xyl runs the boom truck. She gets all the fun jobs.

                Be sure to stop back for updates.