Almost every ham starts out with a homemade wire antenna of some sort. Like many hams I yearned for some sort of "gain" antenna like a beam. Finally, I decided to get serious about it. I really didn't want to go to the trouble or expense of putting up a tower and mounting a large yagi on the top. We were thinking of downsizing to a smaller house, so I didn't want to put up anything too permanent. I had read about the "hex beam" and it seemed to have a following of satisfied owners throughout the ham community. It had the advantage of being directional, having more gain than a dipole and was light weight and required only a medium duty rotator. It would mount on a "push-up pole" and was apparently effective at a low height above the ground. So I started saving my pennies.
There were several popular brands around when I started my selection process in 2017. They were all similar in design, price and function. I was drawn to the K4KIO model for some reason. The ratings from owners was impressive and it looked like a sturdier build than some of the others I had seen. I was also swayed by the number of hams on the air who reported using a hex beam. They were almost always praised for their strong signal. Operating conditions at the time were not good, so the on air reports were even more impressive. So I pulled the plug and ordered the 6-band model from K4KIO.By the way, this is not an endorsement, paid or otherwise of this brand. It is an honest depiction of my experiences with the antenna.
The shipment arrived in a reasonable amount of time from Alabama. The box was suprisingly small as I remember. It was about 4 or 5 feet long. The fiberglass tubes were actually three different diameters for each spreader. They nested neatly inside one another and needed no fastener, just a small hose clamp to mark the stop point. I just pushed them together until they stopped. When the antenna was completely assembled the spreaders and the wire elements would provide tension to hold it all together. The assembly went together easily while following the printed instructions and with the help of my 4-year old grandson. I used an old portable satellite tripod to support the middle of the main plate. When it was all together it looked a lot bigger than I had pictured in in my mind. Antennas always look bigger on the ground than in the air.
Prior to the arrival of the antenna I had been busy designing a method to mount it. I already had a new Rohn 40' pushup mast. My plan was to place the pole in the middle of the back yard. But there were no permanent structures or trees to give it some support. So I set upon designing my own tree. I will admit I had seen similar designs online so I can't take full credit. My idea was to use a 4X4 wooden post as the 'trunk', then attach the mast to it somehow. I wanted to make the mast rotatable so it had to float in whatever holders I came up with. I had already purchased a Yaesu 450A rotor which was plenty strong to turn the lightweight hex beam. But if I wanted to turn the mast as well I would either need a bigger rotor or... that's when I learned about 'thrust bearings'. These clever devices would take all of the vertical weight of the mast so the rotor below would only have to deal with the turning force. Actually the use of a thrust bearing in this situation was a bit of overkill. The rotor could have handled it by itself.
So then I needed two mounting points, one at the top to mount the thrust bearing on and one at the bottom to hold the rotor. I came across some 1/8" aluminum plates, 12" X 12" I believe, at a reasonable price online. I wanted to use aluminum because I could cut it with woodworking tools. The plates arrived, about 10 of them so I was ready to get started building. I found a length of 2" pvc pipe that I used as a dummy mast to line up the holes. I cut out part of the plates and bent the remaining piece at a right angle in my vice. It was actually quite difficult to bend, so I was satisfied that it would be strong enough for the task. I mounted the bottom plate about 3' from the bottom end of the post, then placed the other plate near the top.
I used a 2-1/4" hole saw to drill the hole in the top plate. I calculated the location by mounting the pvc pipe in the rotor, then measuring the distance from the post, making it the same at the top and bottom. That gave me the starting point at the edge of the hole for the thrust bearing. It all worked out fine and I was surprised and pleased with how sturdy the whole contraption turned out. I got some angled aluminum pieces at Home Depot and used them to brace the bottom shelf. I decided the top shelf was strong enough without bracing.
The time had come to put it all together and get on the air. I got out the post hole diggers and made a 2-1/2' hole in a location that would allow the antenna to be lowered or raised without hitting the house or other obstacle. The post already had the brackets, rotor, thrust bearing and collapsed mast mounted to it, so once I dropped it in the hole it would be ready to go. I put my tall step ladder next to the mast, then carried the hex beam antenna across the yard from the assembly area. Then the coax cable needed to be attached to the top of the center post. It was not very difficult to get it the antenna mounted to the top of the mast and fastened down. As I started raising the mast sections, I attached guy ropes at two points. I had already left them long enough to reach their tie down points.
I pushed each mast section up and tightened it down with the right angle friction bolts. All of the sections had to be tight or the mast would not turn as a single unit. I kept going up until I decided, "That's high enough". It ended up at about the 30' level. I had already run the coax and control cables through the attic and down into the second floor ham shack on the other end of the house. So the time had come to test it all out.
The coax was connected to the Palstar AT-AUTO tuner, which was connected to the Alpha 8410 amplifier and finally to the rig, a Yaesu FT-2000. I flipped the power switches in great anticipation and tuned to 20 meters. I was disappointed, but not surprised that I did not hear much. The bands were in bad shape and had been for months. Then I heard a station, but he was not very strong. I remembered that my new antenna was directional so I spun it around to the east and the station got louder and louder. I don't recall where he was, but it was somewhere in the southwest US. He was calling CQ so I answered and gave him a 59+ signal report. He returned with the same report for me. I was not running the amp. It turned out he was also running an FT-2000 and ALSO a K4KIO Hex Beam. We had an armchair copy qso for almost an hour. He was the only station I could hear. Needless to say I was quite pleased with the results of my labors.
After using the hex beam for a couple of years at that location, then at another house for a year or so, I must say that I have had a lot of enjoyment from it. There were a few times when I was in a pileup trying to contact a rare station that I was competing with some of the 'big boys' with their stacked beams at 100', and they usually won. But the hex beam has earned a reputation as a good performer. If conditions are good enough that you can hear a station, you can usually work them. It is not as pinpoint directional as a conventional beam and its side and rear rejection is not great. But for its size and weight and easy one man installation, it's a winner.