I took this in stages by playing with the pennant loop with vactrol circuit first. The wellbrook k9ay antenna consists of two chassis mounted in substantial plastic boxes. Brians ludicrously large links page generated by linkman. The k9ay loop is one of several published designs that use a terminated loop to get a directional pattern in a small space. Remotecontrolled termination used by wellbrook rx antennas for pa6z made by pa9m. Yes, i finally got around to putting up a k9ay loop.
Nearby antennas and power lines degrade actual rdf, especially high rdfs. Create a cool logo, text, image or banner for free font kingdom search, explore, create, and download fonts for free fotoflexer the worlds most advanced online photo editor fox news fox sports frequency movie hitchhikers guide to. To get a larger version, click on the drawing above. Ive used for k9ay supports fiberglass fishing poles 8 meters long they costs each. The relays are large, 12 vdc units which do not have the best contacts. As for all lowgain antenna, there could be some noise incursion common mode issues. Therefore, 4 square k9ay array is operating effectively on two neighboring amateur bands in case of my setup. A metal mast can be used, but make it only as long as necessary and insulate it from ground. The k9ay behaves just like two short sloped verticals with the same phase shift. This is true even in the k9ay loop and pennant antennas, which have sloped conductors. The k9ay loop is meticulously built, and works very well. Jan 22, 2014 i recently built a k9ay homebrew receive antenna and wanted to share that it really works amazingly well. The k9ay loop keeps its directional pattern at lower frequencies, making it an excellent antenna for medium wave and low frequency dxing. Sp3rbr has invented a quite new phasing networks, appropriate for his 4 square k9ay array.
With this setup i have the option of choosing the best. Back at the dayton hamvention in 20, array solutions debuted a new compact receive antenna system called the shared apex loop array, or sal. It resembles a delta loop, but is a very good directional receiving antenna. Active antennas constructed by other hams using aaa1. Wish you had enough room for an effective lowband receiving antenna. K9ay interfacing connecting the k9ay antenna requires a dedicated receive antenna port on your rig. The k9ay terminated loopa compact, directional receiving antenna. As a lowband fan, i was impressed with the ewe antenna developed by floyd koontz, wa2wvl. The user supplies the necessary wire loops, mast, leadins, etc.
Using the scaling rule from the antenna theory, many people were asking about the installation for 160m, expecting that it would also work on 80m. My current k9ay is an amalgamation of parts removed from various equipment. Hfedz end fed 10m160m hf antenna 200w ham radio antenna this is a 200w version of popular efhw8010 endfed halfwave efhw antenna for 80403020171512 and 10m bands. The antenna combines magnetic h and electric e field reception in order to create a.
I would have used a bcd counter to drive the actual binary decimal converter. Mediumsized low band rx antenna solutions gary breed, k9ay expanded version of a presentation at the w9dxcc convention september 15, 2007, elk grove village, il with the low bands benefitting from the current sunspot minimum, receive antennas are important for dxers, contesters and other active amateur radio operators. It always outperforms the transmitting antennas, in terms of signaltonoise, when i am working dx location mo. By gary breed, k9ay lowband operators are always looking for ways to improve their hearing. Microsoft word this is how the k9ay receiving antenna works 9c. The drawing provided above are of a k9ay loop tested at sites in billerica, ma and east harwich, ma during 1999. With the arrival of the 20072008 winter season, i left it unchanged. In a relapse of one of my occasional bouts of interest in seeing just what is still being broadcast on various parts of the hf spectrum, i have been exploring just how useful a small terminated loop, like the k9ay. Morse code for kids website printing education for kids printer radios. Hfedz end fed 10m 160m hf antenna 200w ham radio antenna. This antenna system is the only broadband phased k9ay to offer a unidirectional pattern similar to the beverage, over 360 degrees with electronic null optimisation.
Installation instructions ayl4 4way k9ay loop system. Thank you to frank sessink pa0fsb for submitting to us his document describing the k9ay loop antenna pdf, which is the antenna that he successfully uses with his rtlsdr for hf reception. Another advance has been to combine signals from external antennas in an adjustable desktop box to cancel the noise and leave. There are hams who have built 4squares of k9ay loops. Not to take anything away from gary breed, k9ay, who makes and sells these things under the corporate name aytechnologies, i decided to make my own k9ay antenna system and controller. Comprised of a 85 foot loop with a switching box located at the bottom feed point. It is usually mounted on the roof of a car for seaside dxpeditions of brief duration. The wooden a frame support described in the arrl handbook and antenna book is an excellent choice. There is a feeling they burnout very quickly and are less than reliable for antenna use. If you wish to see my whole detailed circuit, look here pdf. Receiving antennas or what happened to thebeverages at. After much experiments he designed a terminated loop see his article in qst september. Seems very few people have anything good to say about them. This not only shows that one can null a signal on the 90 and 5 sides of the loop in addition to the 180 null, but it seems to confirm a finding made at a grayland, wa dxpediton, namely that the loop has a distinct and relatively sharp front lobe that is more sensitive than settings 45 away.
Rx antennas rx antena single wire beverage rx antena bidirectional two wire beverage rx antena 4way rx antenna switch k9ay loops k9ay loop feeder with bpfs and preamp rx antena beverages and wire antennas acessories. As a preliminary test, ive disconnected 3 positions of 4 square k9ay array and tried operate on single k9ay antenna. The tentec orion has such separate receive antenna port to protect the front end of the rig from damaging currents when transmitting, frontend protection similar to that sold by array solutions is needed. I have no room for beverages in fact several honest suppliers like k1fz and n0tt told me dont bother and directed me to this loop, so this was my only choice for a real receiving antenna with some theory behind it. Signals from each loop are transferred through a ferrite coupler to a short balanced line that connects to the switchcombineramp enclosure mounted at the base of the antenna. The sloped conductor behaves as a vertical think about this when people follow the mistaken advice that sloping the last few feet of a beverage stops noise pickup of vertically polarized signals, ten feet of vertical drop is still ten feet of vertical. Describe your experience with the k9ay loop antenna kit and tell us why you give it the rating you did required.
The k9ay is a receiving loop antenna that works well on the lower frequency bands. Within this enclosure, signals from each loop are routed. The tower can affect other antennas whether they are resonant or not especially vertical arrays even loops create a trap. Here some observations regarding this upgrade, in no particular order. The k9ay loop is ideal for larger arrays, since it has already has a directive pattern. Modular antenna switch antenna six to one switch antenna six to one switch kit antenna one to.
Building upon the foundation laid by the ewe, k9ay, and the flag and pennant antennas, the sal featured true time delay phasing, and no need for a control wire from the shack to the antenna or grounding. Generally signal strength is much lower on the k9ay than the vertical however, the noise floor is substantially lower as well the signal to noise is often much better the preamp is operable below 7 mhz only in some situations the vertical antenna is better. The antenna combines magnetic h and electric e field reception in order to. When i thought about building a k9ay loop antenna, i was thinking of a nice complement to the. On 160m it reduces the base noise level by 34 s units and makes the difference as signals both cw and lsb become intelligible. Active receive antennas are useable over a wide range of frequencies, offering the best possible phase nulling and peaking. How to build the k9ay loop receiving antenna gary breed, k9ay ay technologies 6677 sunset drive verona, wi 53593 email. Although very effective, beverages are often 500 to long, so are not practical for hams with small lots. From that moment, even after rewinding the transformer, changing the vactrol, the performance was even worst than before.
Basically, after looking at the currently available commercial version, i figured i could make a better unit for less money and be happy the basis for the k9ay antenna is that it has a steerable null. Here are the instructions for constructing the loop itself. One very popular receive antenna is the beverage, which is essentially a very long wire usually about 68 above the ground. Finally in september of 2008, i could complete an improved design using exclusively pure dc instead of the halfwave rectified average dc as suggested by the original gary breed design. There are lots of good designs for matching transformers for receiving antennas. The antenna combines magnetic h and electric e field reception in order to create a directive radiation pattern. Fasten the antenna wires effectively the top guys first, and let the nylon ropes dangle better still, tape them to the sides of the mast temporarily before you start, so the wind doesnt make the whole thing into a maypole. I recently built a k9ay homebrew receive antenna and wanted to share that it really works amazingly well. Instead of a wire return to complete a transmission line path, the ewe relies on earth. The k9ay terminated loopa compact, directional receiving. All listening was conducted in mount kisco, ny, 40 miles north of new york city on a drake r8b. About build a k9ay receive antenna the resource is currently listed in in 2 categories. A lot of info can be found on internet, and especially in the must read low band dxing by on4un.
In some installations, the antenna may retain some directivity. Asayl4 mw kit ayl4 mast and wire kit description includes six mast sections of 4 ft effective height 44. While outwardly appearing different, the ewe operating mechanism is no different than a flag, pennant, or k9ay. It is located about 75 feet from the base of the transmit antennas. Although this online calculator is intended to assist with designing and building homemade, ham radio loop antennas for use in the hf bands, magnetic antennas have been. Jan 30, 2017 the k9ay is a receiving loop antenna that works well on the lower frequency bands. By gary breed, k9ay the 1 directional receiving antenna owband operators are always looking for ways to improve their hearing.
It consists of a wire loop of any convenient shape diamond, delta, etc, hung from a single support and with a ground rod at the bottom. K9ay loops wish you had enough room for an effective low. It was apparent that many stations were copying me much better than i could hear them, so something needed to be done. K9ay loop antennas category is a curation of 12 web resources on, receiving antenna for low bands, k9ay flag pennant ewe, the k9ay terminated loop. This link is listed in our web site directory since thursday feb 25 2010, and till today build a k9ay receive antenna has been followed for a total of 2998 times.
Kick back and open a cold one, after the envelope is mailed. As it came out later, the 80m antenna works also surprisingly well on 40m. Gary breed, k9ay was fascinated by this idea and worked it out using his computer. Hf switchingmatching antenna six to two switch antenna six to two switch 2 triplexer ver.
Wellbrook k9ay phased array 500khz to 2mhz the wellbrook k9ay phased array is a sophisticated broadband antenna system, designed for enhanced mw and 160m ham band reception. The closest windmill with 4megawatt generator is only 90m far away amazing. This link is listed in our web site directory since saturday dec 14 20, and till today the mini k9ay antenna has been followed for a total of 674 ti. There are hams who have built 4squares of k9ay loops and marveled at the extreme fronttoback performance. Small transmitting loop antennas, commonly called magnetic loops or mag loops, can give surprisingly good performance when they are carefully designed and constructed. The k9ay loop antenna is a loop antenna with frontback ratio of around 25 db. Phasing k9ay antennas, to make better directional system, is nothing new.
Many broadcast band dxers marvel at the way switching the pattern lets you hear different stations on the same frequency. The bbl1 broadband loop is a scaleddown version of this antenna. For our contest group pa6z we needed some good receiving antennas for the low bands 160m, 80m and 40m. The main category is k9ay loop antennas that is about k9ay loop antennas. Unlike toroid core transformers, this type of transformer is very forgiving of the builders technique. Ive chosen to use a waterproof multiconductor plug to enable quick detachment of the antenna wires from the k9ay control box that will be located at the base of the antenna. Obviously to support folding, either the antenna wire has to move along the ends of the arms or i have to detach the antenna wire from the base. About the mini k9ay antenna the resource is currently listed in in a single category. The ayl4 consists of two units, an indoor control box and an outdoor. K9ay 80160 meter switchable loop antenna system after operating a couple 160 meter contests last winter, i realized i needed to do something to improve my receiving performance. Unlike many end fed antennas on the market, this one does not require the antenna tuner to operate. Gary breed, k9ay, developed a receive loop system that takes up very little space. For example, two k9ay loops will have a far better directive pattern than is possible with two omnidirectional verticals. Martin francis ndb k9ay mast revised th july, 2004.
The ncc1 can be used with many other combinations of receiving antennas including single and reversible beverages, receive foursquare arrays, k9ay loops, and more. Feb 14, 2018 thank you to frank sessink pa0fsb for submitting to us his document describing the k9ay loop antenna pdf, which is the antenna that he successfully uses with his rtlsdr for hf reception. How to build the k9ay loop receiving antenna ay technologies. This system provides a cardioid directional pattern in four different directions. Large metal objects affect the antenna s performance, so install it in the clear. Monitor doublet earchi antenna elecraft kx2 end fed antenna fldigi ft8 heathkit sb200 hustler 4btv ic7100 icom 718 k9ay antenna ldg yt100 lnr efquad lymphoma mirrorless mobile hf npota oak hills research ohr wm2 omni omni antenna par electronics portapaddle portable operation qrp rigexpert rockmite rsp1a sdrplay signalink tarheel antenna. Any wire longer than 60 meters beats single k9ay antenna. Rx antena 4way rx antenna switch k9ay loops k9ay loop feeder with bpfs and preamp rx antena beverages and wire antennas acessories. I am so very shocked at how good it is compared to my 14 sloper that is mounted on my tower. Lowband operators are always looking for ways to improve their hearing. Remember, in the antenna control box, there are 2 grounds.