2 metre xy beam installed

With everything that's been going on in the past few days, including significant progress on my new book, I've had precious little time for radio. And that includes putting my new 2 metre XY beam through its paces.

Tony EI4DIB and Jim EI2HJB putting the beam up

I have had the beam plus rotator since last autumn but just never made plans to install it, so when Tony EI4DIB and JIM EI2HJB offered to help, I gladly accepted with haste. I had recently bought a length of RG213 coax for the installation as the XY is actually two beams in one - one with eight elements vertically polarized and the other with eight horizontal elements, all on the same boom. All I needed to acquire on the day was some three-core flex to run between the rotator and controller, some insulation tape and some cable-ties and we were ready to rock.

The installation took place on Saturday, the day after my birthday. As luck would have it, the sun was shining and it was dry, although it was a little bit cool in the morning time. The whole job took about three hours. We took down my Antron 99 which has been a brilliant performer on the higher HF bands for me. We will find a new spot for that in the coming weeks. The 6m dipole was also put on the stub pole as well as the 2m beam so it is now rotatable. The 2m beam has a folded dipole as the driven element on each plane.

When the job was complete a quick test was carried out using my IC-746 which puts out 100 watts on 2 metres, on FM, SSB and CW. We found that the SWR was flat across the band on both vertical and horizontal beams - phew!

Conditions have not been great on VHF since then so it's difficult to say how it's performing. I did hear the GB3ANG beacon near Dundee in Scotland a couple of times and made a video when it was at its strongest, which you can see below.