[TowerTalk] Hex beam assembly time?

john at kk9a.com john at kk9a.com
Wed Feb 21 21:00:43 EST 2018


Great summary Kelly! 

John KK9A


-----Original Message-----
From: Kelly Taylor [mailto:ve4xt at mymts.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2018 7:25 PM
To: john at kk9a.com
Cc: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Hex beam assembly time?

The Spiderbeam is intended for short-term, portable operations. The Spiderbeam HD is strengthened and adapted for permanent installation. It’s heavier and uses permanent fastenings to hold the wires to the arms. 

It has arguably better performance than hex beams (KIO concedes this point), but is not plug-n-play like pretty much all the hexbeams. With the Spiderbeam, you get one roll of wire and one roll of cording (covered Dyneema, if I recall). You measure and cut all wires and cords. 

The hexbeams provide measured and cut wires and cording. 

Of course, with the Spider, you only have to do the measuring and cutting once. 

There’s far less tension on the arms on the Spiderbeam, as they’re only flexed a bit to provide strength. 

Turning radius on the Spiderbeam is 16 feet and a bit, and typically 11 feet (ish) on the hexbeams. 

Both are a bit like mounting a quad element. 

The Spiderbeam is 14 lbs, hexes weigh in around 25. Spiderbeam HD is 24 lbs. 

73, kelly, ve4xt,



Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 21, 2018, at 16:31, "john at kk9a.com" <john at kk9a.com> wrote:
> 
> I have never used either although both look well suited for portable 
> operations. They certainly look easier to put up than the Force12 C3S 
> that I set up in KP2 last March. I believe that there is only one 
> Spiderbeam but multiple Hex beam manufactures. The Spider beam has 
> three elements per band vs two for the Hex so it has more gain but it's slightly larger.
> 
> John KK9A
> 
> 
> 
> From:    W0MU Mike Fatchett
> Date:    Wed, 21 Feb 2018 14:27:34 -0700
> 
> They call theirs a spider beam.  3 ele on 20, 15, 2 on 17,12 and 4 on 10. 
> It looks more like V beams than loops.
> https://www.spiderbeam.com/pdf_files/spider_specification_english.pdf
> 
> W0MU
> 
> 
> On 2/21/2018 12:34 PM, Patrick Greenlee wrote:
> How do they make it into a  H E X A G O N A L shape with 4 rods????
> 
> 
> On 2/21/2018 9:14 AM, Dave Thompson wrote:
> 
> Gang,
> 
> There are a lot of HEX beams.  I see MFJ has gotten into the game, too.
> 
> I looked through all the hex beams and the spider beam seems to be the 
> best of the lot as it has more than 2 elements on 10, 15, and 20.  It 
> is tough to put together. Vibroplex sells this hex beam. It only needs 
> 4 spacer rods rather than 6 but be sure to get the one for fixed 
> installation.
> 
> As I recall Vibroplex used to sell a couple of others that went 
> together fast for portable installation, too.  One was a hex beam in a bag.
> 
> 73 Dave K4JRB
> 
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> 
> 
> 
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