> I've assembled a lot of yagis, but always seem to run into the problem of
> getting the elements to line up with each other in a horizontal plane
> parallel with the ground. I'm about to assemble several more. Any tricks
of
> the trade out there for getting this right the first time?
>
>
> Larry WI5A
> Friendswood, TX
>
Larry,
Your eyeball is better than you, or most of us give it credit for.
The little secret I learned from my Elmer (my dad) was to not try to
assemble antennas on the ground, or milk crates, or sawhorses, or any other
such collection of stuff that will fool us by distorting the antenna.
"The old man" always had a piece of 2" mast mounted in the ground expressly
for the purpose of assembling antennas.
Once you've got the "assembly mast", life is wonderful. You can work on it
at waist height (no groveling in the dirt), and you can adjust everything
just like it will be up in on the tower.
My suggestion is to assemble the boom first and adjust the upguys to make
it level (you can trust your eyeball). Then hang all the elements, starting
with the ones nearest the mast and working out, adding one to each side as
you go. Once all are mounted, you can tweak them to get the alignment you
like.
As others have pointed out, the horizontal alignment will not make it work
better. I'll just make you feel better when you get home from work!
73, Kurt
YagiStress - The Ultimate Mechanical Design Software for Yagi's
Visit - http://freeyellow.com/members3/yagistress
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