Mini MOXON 446Mhz

[Toby]

With the success of "The Beast" (20m Moxon), thought it would be fun to build one for PMR 446.16875.

Tested the mini beast last night on the 9th Anniversary of The South Coast PMR Network ran by Ray The Chairman.

My location was the Ashdown Forest and the mini Moxon was on top of the 12m mast attached to a homebrew rotator.

The construction was PVC pipe, brazing rods for the elements, coax, superglue and some cunning.

This antenna worked surprisingly well for not a lot of antenna.

[Tony]

Brilliant and who would have thought that it would 'do the business so well'.
Apart from the much improved signal the audio is also louder, the best I have ever heard from Ashdown Forest to Brighton.    

[NeilMaidstone]

Hi Toby,
That certainly looks diddy! Worked well last night, especially bearing in mind the low power you were using. Now if i could just figure out how to rotate it whilst its suspended 15m up in a tree on a throw line i would be sorted!    

[Toby]

Brilliant and who would have thought that it would 'do the business so well'.
Apart from the much improved signal the audio is also louder, the best I have ever heard from Ashdown Forest to Brighton.    

And you were giving me signal 8/9. Very pleased with the performance of this little thing.

[Toby]

Hi Toby,
That certainly looks diddy! Worked well last night, especially bearing in mind the low power you were using. Now if i could just figure out how to rotate it whilst its suspended 15m up in a tree on a throw line i would be sorted!    

Hi Neil,
It's amazing for such a small thing.

You could use a telescopic fiberglass pole, something like a 10m DX Commander pole and rotate by hand.

[Razz229]

With the success of "The Beast" (20m Moxon), thought it would be fun to build one for PMR 446.16875.

Tested the mini beast last night on the 9th Anniversary of The South Coast PMR Network ran by Ray The Chairman.

My location was the Ashdown Forest and the mini Moxon was on top of the 12m mast attached to a homebrew rotator.

The construction was PVC pipe, brazing rods for the elements, coax, superglue and some cunning.

This antenna worked surprisingly well for not a lot of antenna.

It did work well for the Mark 1 version 3.

I'm now imagining some form of stacked array 😮😉

[NeilMaidstone]

Yep that's exactly what i was thinking. A stack of 3 and a 3 way switch at the radio no need for a rotator. Boom, Heck of a lot of coax though Doh!

[Razz229]

That certainly looks diddy! Worked well last night, especially bearing in mind the low power you were using. Now if i could just figure out how to rotate it whilst its suspended 15m up in a tree on a throw line i would be sorted!   

Hi Neil

You could hardly see it up on the pole, until it got dark and then there were 2 red eyes lights sweeping Radio Corner



and then the heat ray followed. . .ULLAAAH

[Razz229]

Hi Toby,
That certainly looks diddy! Worked well last night, especially bearing in mind the low power you were using. Now if i could just figure out how to rotate it whilst its suspended 15m up in a tree on a throw line i would be sorted!   

Hi Neil,
It's amazing for such a small thing.

You could use a telescopic fiberglass pole, something like a 10m DX Commander pole and rotate by hand.

I agree with the fibreglass pole, I think it would work well at 3 or more, metres in the air

[Razz229]

Yep that's exactly what i was thinking. A stack of 3 and a 3 way switch at the radio no need for a rotator. Boom, Heck of a lot of coax though Doh!

Great idea Neil, but the coax spaghetti would be a nightmare.

What about stacked side by side or top & bottom? That should up the TX & RX gain on any low power radio.

[NeilMaidstone]

Yeah, someone needs to invent a bluetooth pl259 plug in unit each end and get rid of the coax all together. No tangles, no losses and it would still probably be a cheaper solution than M&P ultraflex 7  

[Toby]

With the success of "The Beast" (20m Moxon), thought it would be fun to build one for PMR 446.16875.

Tested the mini beast last night on the 9th Anniversary of The South Coast PMR Network ran by Ray The Chairman.

My location was the Ashdown Forest and the mini Moxon was on top of the 12m mast attached to a homebrew rotator.

The construction was PVC pipe, brazing rods for the elements, coax, superglue and some cunning.

This antenna worked surprisingly well for not a lot of antenna.

It did work well for the Mark 1 version 3.

I'm now imagining some form of stacked array 😮😉

Ray.....Thats a great idea, how many do you think we could 'stack' on the mast? And are we going for an PMR Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) contact to some place exotic?    

[Toby]

Yep that's exactly what i was thinking. A stack of 3 and a 3 way switch at the radio no need for a rotator. Boom, Heck of a lot of coax though Doh!

If you can rotate one fast enough using some sort of brushed connector (like a DC motor) at the feed point, you would be omnidirectional.

In all seriousness, John CT4515 might be able to give you an idea on a lightweight rotator to top a lightweight telescopic pole. 

[Razz229]

Ray.....Thats a great idea, how many do you think we could 'stack' on the mast? And are we going for an PMR Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) contact to some place exotic?   


I got the Abacus out, and using some very complicated equations & formulas came up with this answer.

Not this week 🤣🤣