Building A Directional Yagi Antenna for 144 VHF or 433 UHF Amature Radio! 

I like the design idea. For me I would use Arrows that are already straight and more rigid than copper pipe. Great video

Awesome!

Possibly the most "over engineered" solution to Yagi construction I have ever seen... good for you, whatever gets you on the air 👍

Use alumiweld rod( the type you use a propane torch with) You can tin the aluminum with it. Then rosin core solder will bond to it.

Those terms are used in a nice, free Yagi Calculator. That person calls the driven element the dipole. Somehow even though the guy that designed and uploaded the Yagi Calculator used the "incorrect" terms, thousands of folks have made really nice yagis with it. And there's another really important piece of information here. The guy/gal that made this nice calculator may be using English as a second, third, or fourth language if not more. I don't know about you but I only speak one language. Have you ever written instructions? Give them to five people and you'll receive five sets of things you did "wrong" with said instructions. So my hat is off to the person that gave us the chang something calculator. I for one used it to sniff out Power Company Equipment that was ruining my radio hobby. In one hour I found the bad component/s. Even though the calculator maker called the driven element a "dipole". Which.....it actually is. Oh well. Some folks should just buy what they need. And to oh so illustrious maker of the Chang something calulator, thank you. And always remember. "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!"

Hello, nice video ! Can you put the list of material necessary (the list you show at 1:53) in the video description ?

Great job. Thanks for the video and the STL files. Would you be willing to share the native CAD files so I can scale them in OnShape? Pretty much any solid format will work. Before I start messing around with the STL files, I figured I'd ask. Would save me a heap of time...

If you lay your cut copper on your bench and put a board over the top and roll it back and forth it will straighten the copper tubing

Could you answer a question I have about antenna. Would using elements that are larger in diameter than standard needed and having schotsky triangles cut into the metal around the circumference increase the gain and signal to noise ratio ???

Hello, I was wondering, if I'll use a steel bracket to hold the elements, will the gain of the antenna be affected???

You can just chuck that copper tube in your drill. Then get a piece of wood with a hole that is slightly bigger then the tube. Put the tube through the hole. Spin the tube with the drill dragging the wood at an angle down the tube (starting from the drill).

I am a little confused about the ground connection, shall the ground of the coaxial cable be connected to the center body? And what happens if the reflector isn't connected to it?

4:30 Orange Wacky Stick makes it straight!

I've made a 5 element 1.6GHz Yagi with a signal element that's 90mm long. Using 2mm bare wire as elements. I have to cut this piece into 2x45mm pieces to hook up to the coax cable? What about the 2-3 mm minimum distance I can manage keeping them apart? Does the gap between the ground and signal poles matter? Do I have to trim the length of the wires after assembly?

Wouldn't it be easier to have all your small parts in a bowl? That way you do not have to search for those parts all over the Table. Soldering to copper pipe can be done by tinning both wire and copper tubing before hand so your supports will not risk being melted.

Hi mate, thanks for the tutorial. There is a lot of great information here! Iv been trying to do a bit of research on yagi antennas and have a few questions im hoping you (or anyone in the comments) can answer for me. 1) When you are making your driven element, (the steeman yagi antenna calculator seems pretty good for calculating element lengths from what i can tell) it appears you remove 1/4 inch material from the middle to create the 1/4 inch gap between the two halves of the dipole. is this correct? wouldn't it be better the cut the the driven element directly in the half and just space the 2 halves 1/4 inch a part? 2) Some designs like the design show at the bottom of the steeman yagi antenna calculator page use a gamma matching rod. when you compare something like that to a more simple design like you have shown in your video, is there really much of a difference in terms of performance? 3) This is the only design iv seen so far that connects the reflector element to ground. why do you do this and how necessary is it? 4) I've seen some designs use a "hairpin match" which eclectically connects the the two halves of the dipole. what is the purpose of this and why do you choose not to use one? 5) I've seen some designs that don't insulate the parasitic elements from the aluminum boom. does it really matter? apologies if you clearly explain any of these points and iv just missed it. my little pea brain is slightly overwhelmed! any help/advice you (or anyone) can give is highly appreciated!

Where do you get the hardware to mount the elements from? Thanks.

were are the supports for the individual directors they are not in the file that you can down load ?

I would suggest two reflectors, and five directors (always an odd number for directors) for greater forward gain and a greater null towards the back of the beam. Add a non conductive holder at the back of the boom to avoid RF burns (even at five watts you can get an rf burn holding the boom). Depending on the coax you use, this beam can be used up to 25 watts power into the antenna. I recommend RG-8X for all power levels because there is little loss from the coax and RG-8X is flexible enough to bend at a 2" radius.

Have you ever tried Cad-Weld products ? I use it for grounding towers but with a little ingenuity I imagine it can be used in other applications utilizing brass brazing rods.

Nice video for a beginner, some new ideas printing the antenna supports, and it is very obvious some thought went into building this antenna instead of "buying off the shelf" that so many do, but do not learn the principles of how it actually works. Nice job! Next time you will do much better! 73's de W4FJF.

You mean "reflector", "Driven", and "director" elements? That is the way most (or all) antenna builders name the elements in a yagi beam construction.

New Subscriber From Aberystwyth , Wales Do You Sell Those Units ? Bless Up

I have a question, it may be stupid but I need an answer. When I calculate the dimensions for VHF and UHF I get different dimensions, of course. How do I assemble one VHF / UHF antenna from these dimensions?

Nice job. Any thoughts on selling the brackets? Could be a side jig.

Im new to ham and ive just built a 70 cm 7 element yagi it has TIG rod elements and a non conductive boom i did not connect the reflector can you please explane the why its needed and can i just run a wire down then boom to connect them thank you for your time and help

Liked your concept. Wish had printer.suggest using 3/4" boom which would allow use of higher grade coax internal to the boom. Also. Bad engineering to have cu and Al in contact. Thinking of using your design concept but with drilled and sliced blocks of lexan. Lot cheaper than printer and maybe stronger. How was the performance? That would make a good short video. Thanks. 73 and keep up the ham spirit. De KC6NNV. DM14

Nice video! Where can we find the material?

Why is there money coming out of the ground outside?

There is usually an optimum radial diameter for each frequency, this can be worth looking into for optimization.

How much of a difference would it make, if I use a PVC pipe instead of an aluminium beam? The grounding can be made with simple cable connections, am I right?

Hi, I am building one or the 144MHz, do you guys have any suggestion about the thickness of the pipe? I heard that the pipe diameter will decide the bandwidth of the antenna.

Wow you can gab

Can you please tell me what size of copper tubing you used

Why do you isolate the elements from the mast? Not needed.

Can you pick up the ISS with this?

Is there a difference from using copper vs aluminum? Cause I have a lot of 1/2in aluminum square tubings and 1in?

Quite the personalized "unique" diy yagi.. .Deff the smallest od boom using the largest fastening hardware ever seen ! ...Usually, most yagi calculators design for either All elements (Except driven dipole elements) grounded to boom or all are insulated from boom & each a significantly Different element length Set....Your Directors seem to be floating insulated from boom with both Reflector & Driven elements boom grounded ??? .....Your 1/100 " dimensionals measured with tape rule & fat "Sharpie" marked is interesting mix...Without any impedance matching (at least a "hairpin" matcher) feature, do you really expect near 50 ohms feed Z or a reasonably decent, safe SWR from online Calc direct to wham-banged cut & assembled without some tweaking ?? What SWR (your "finals" Will thank you ! ) results did you achieve before using ??....

Thanks....but I checked out at "3D-printed brackets". Cute, but I'd rather do something with off-the-shelf components. Maybe I'll check it out later.....

Just drill some holes in the aluminum spar to an OD that will match some pvc or vinyl tubing stretched over your copper and you won't have to dick with the printed stuff. Printed stuff is ok, but it's weak and unnecessary in most cases. Friction fit bushings would serve you well for many years. Carbon fiber is also an option but those require fittings and that's usually the weak point and makes for finicky assembly.

Awesome! i tried the calculator and it doesn't show me the dipole length only the position...

I read many others comments but.. How would you calculate an effective range of transmission

Hello bro, how many lenght Dpole for counting 144mhz ?

here is a thought Use rigid copper But good design Thanks

"Oxyguard" is an excellent way to isolate copper from aluminum to eliminate any galvanic action between dissimilar metals. Oxyguard (or its equivalent) can be found at any electrical supply store.

You can roll them flat between two pieces of wood!

Why Inches? Needs To Be Inches AND Metric Systtem Please, But Damn, I Need 3D Printer, Sadly Im Poor As Dirt :( Butt What A Cool Yagi Antenna Man, Love Your Enthusiasm About It, Same As Myself. Love To Make Everything Myself

Your "driven" element (or dipole) MUST NOT touch the boom in any way. It must be free floating above ground potential in order to work correctly. The directors can either be free floating or connected to the boom depending on your design. This again is where Oxyguard comes into use on the directors because it protects the copper directors from the aluminum, yet supplies electrical contact if you wish, or your mounts can be free floating also in your design. At the center of each element, the RF current will be zero - so it almost doesn't matter.

Has anyone ordered the 3D cross brackets from anyone, would be interested in the cost vs. buying a complete yagi from an antenna manufacturer. I've had estimates that are in the hundreds of dollars for a set of 7 brackets.

Im So Sad That I Don`t Have 3D Printer, :( :(

Who has a 3d printer just laying around?