Skunk Works

Another Antenna Project by VE6AB

This photo shot in my shop, shows me inspecting my recently completed 10/80 meter antenna, just after re-assembling the antenna. I had the antenna on a shake-down-cruise on my mobile earlier in the day, and I am quite pleased with how the antenna performs. I needed to do some touch-up work on the TuneSleeve, That travels along the coil for tuning purposes.
I am pleased with how the TS turned out, as it is a built up from 1/16th sheet aluminum. I turned a hardwood form for the curved bottom section and spun the 1/16th sheet aluminum on my lathe in to the newly formed curved bottom section of the TS. I then tig-welded the components of the TS in to one assembly.

At this stage of the construction, I had been running tests with the antenna installed on my mobile, although I had not yet installed the drive actuator, or the polycarbonate weather sleeve in place on the antenna. I designed the antenna to be maually tuned, or with a linear actuator that powers the TuneSleeve. The linear actuator may be installed or removed from the antenna in less than 5 minutes.