3 Element Hex Beam for 50 MHz with 48 inch spreader and hat wires.

May 2007

Harry Johnson
WB3BEL

Here is a short data package for an approach to using 4 ft spreaders without extenders for
a 50 MHz 3 element hex beam. The performance is about the same as the 54 inch
spreader version. The match details would need to be modified as the feedpoint
impedance is slightly lower. So a shorter hairpin is needed.

Refer to Figure 1 for the geometry of the hat shortened 3 element hex beam.

Figure 1

The gain and front to back ratio are about the same as the full size beam as can be seen
from the following graphs. Actually the F/B can be tweaked to be better than what was
done on the full size beam, but the actual prototype would need to be field tuned to get
more than 30 dB F/B so it is a case of model optimism. In addition, the F/R is a bit less.

These simulations are from Arie Voors 4NEC2 which is excellent and available as
freeware from:

http://home.ict.nl/~arivoors/
Figure 2

Figure 3
Figure 4

45 dB F/B I would not bet my paycheck on that! But I think that it is still possible to get
20 dB across the first 500 KHz of 50 MHz.

And here are the dimensions for those who wish to model and scale for other bands.

Spreader length = 48 inches

Driver half length not including hat wires = 48 inches
Hat wire length = 4.4 inches each wire total of 4
Reflector half length = 57.1 inches
Director half length = 54.7 inches

The model does not include the matching network but the impedance is within easy range
of hairpin match. I have not built this antenna but am pretty sure that it will work
reasonably closely to the model.

Here is the model you can cut and paste this to notepad or your favorite text editor and
name it with a file extension of .nec and run it in 4NEC2. I especially like how it handles
variable naming and allows the variable to be tuned in the optimizer by selecting the
sweep option
CM 50 MHz 3 element hat hexbeam Dims are in inches.
CM WB3BEL May 20 2007
CM
CE

SY FRQ = 50.2 'frequency variable

SY HGT = 0 'height variable

SY DIR = 54.7 'director half length in inches

SY REF = 57.1 'reflector half length in inches
SY DE = 48 'driver half length not including hat in inches
SY ANG = 60 'hex angle = 60 degrees

SY RAD = 0.03 'wire radius

SY X1 = DE*SIN(ANG)
SY Y1 = DE*COS(ANG)
SY L2 = REF-Y1
SY X2 = x1-L2*SIN(ANG)
SY Y2 = Y1+L2*COS(ANG)
SY L3 = DIR-Y1
SY X3 = X1-L3*SIN(ANG)
SY Y3 = Y1+L3*COS(ANG)

SY HT = 4.4 'hat length each of 4 wires variable

SY HTX = HT*SIN(ANG)
SY HTY = HT*COS(ANG)

CM Reflector wires
GW 1 40 -X1 -Y1 HGT -X1 Y1 HGT RAD
GW 2 40 -X1 Y1 HGT -X2 Y2 HGT RAD
GW 3 40 -X2 -Y2 HGT -X1 -Y1 HGT RAD

CM Driven element wire

GW 4 41 0 -DE HGT 0 DE HGT RAD

CM Reflector wire
GW 5 40 X1 -Y1 HGT X1 Y1 HGT RAD
GW 6 40 X3 -Y3 HGT X1 -Y1 HGT RAD
GW 7 40 X1 Y1 HGT X3 Y3 HGT RAD

CM hat wires
GW 8 5 0 -DE HGT HTX -DE+HTY HGT RAD
GW 9 5 0 -DE HGT -HTX -DE+HTY HGT RAD
GW 10 5 0 DE HGT HTX DE-HTY HGT RAD
GW 11 5 0 DE HGT -HTX DE-HTY HGT RAD

GS 0 0 in 'scaling to inches
GE 0
EK 'extended thin wire kernel

EX 0 4 21 0 1 0 'source on wire 4 middle segment 21

GN -1
FR 0 1 0 0 FRQ 0 'frequency using FRQ variable
EN 'end