EME 144 MHz array and RIG – IW3HVB Ham Radio Station

The history of my 144 MHz array has been quite complicated.

Had a single 19LLY on a 9 mt mast over the house roof, but then the malicious EME virus finally got me and I started to work in that direction.

At first I installed A relatively simple 2 bay system, horizontally stacked. Altough the mechanical part for elevation and the antenna horizontal structure were already capable to whitstand 4 or more antennas, I started with 2×19 Log Loop Yagis courtesy of I3DLI.

The mast was not that big, a 6 mt high (shortened the old one) square pole with carriage, guyed and mounted on the roof top of my house.

Having been able to oversee the house building, I made sure to have a good base, resting over the main structural wall right in the middle of the building, and 4 anchoring point, welded on top of the corner pillars.

Despite that, a small tornado thought to pass right over my roof in june 2012, when I was attending at Friedrichshafen Fair. Bad surprise when back home. Mast bent at the base, and antennas unsalvageable. The anemometer logged 140 Kph before getting damaged as well.

Not happy, but determined to bring the dream back, I started from scratch, using an Aluminium square tower, 40 cm wide. With the precious help of Angelo IK3RIP and Adriano I3PDA, I got a new carriage for the array, a new electrical winch and some other improvements.

Paolo I3DLI has been involved again, since I was not sure to go with the 19LLY again, quite heavy and long, so I asked him to devise a way to shorten them, in order to install 4 of them. He came up with my current 12LLY, and with 4×5 vertical yagis at the front as a bonus for I/Q reception.

Problem was that, being over the roof, antennas and everything were quite tedious to mantain and every time having to be up the roof for changing a LNA or to tweak something was not the best solution.

In the end I decided to build a new tower, directly in my backyard, in order to have everything at ground level when needed.

After a painful and very long arm wrestling with the local authorities, I have been able to raise a 15mt high self supporting steel tower and the array has been moved in the new position.