Yaesu ATAS 120 Antenna Radial Kit Build -- Ham Radio Manpack Setup
Vložit
- čas přidán 23. 05. 2023
- I've had this ATAS 120 antenna for a while now, but I've gotten frustrated with it several times before when I've tried to use it because its usually inconsistent about tuning properly. So, I finally mustered up the gumption to build a proper ground radial kit for it and had pretty good success with this version.
Let me know what you think and if I should try this antenna on one of my activations.
Thanks for watching!!! - Věda a technologie
Good times!!! I run a similar setup and it works great. Try bringing the ATAS lower to the ground and add more Radial wires to lower the SWR. An elevated antenna needs radials cut to quarter wave length.
I'm selling my WolfRiver Coil antenna now.
I did end up adding six more radials that were 16 feet long for the 40 meter band and that brought it right down. I did try to make some contacts on 40 meters after sunset, but the band was so noisy with static crashes that no one could hear me. I’ll have to set up again in the morning and try my luck. Thanks again for the info and thanks for watching!!
@@ar124radio Try adding some type 31 FairRite RF snap-on ferrites at your coax near the radio.
This can reduce noise received. This is a common current choke that blocks rf flowing on the outside of your coax.
I re-purposed an old Velbon camera tripod for my ATAS-120 mount. I cut a small plate to handle several holes for mounting 16 12' lengths of speaker wire for the radials. Works very well from 40m on up. Just made a good 20m contact in Colorado (from San Diego) using my FT-857 in my go box using a 20ah Bioenno. Thanks for your video, AR 124!
The ATAS 100/120 will present 30 ohms impedance at resonance withe the lowest SWR you find.
They do need a ground system /counterpoise. The radiating portion of the antenna is the coil and whip that is above the top of the housing. Good current flow requires a ground/strapping to vehicle chassis.
My example is my 17 foot canoe on which I deploy an 24 year old ATAS 100/FT-100 Yaesu.
For marine canoe stability on the water, I have a second canoe tied to the first canoe with a DIY
wooden deck,4 feet between at the beam width of each canoe. The assembly then becomes a catamaran.
I can fly a flag, like the Boy Scout Flag, or the scouts favorite, A large Red pirate flag!
my vessel instantly becomes visible to other boaters. Many are curious and will come along
side on Field Day or Jamboree on The Air. Others along side can hear the radio and I'm able to
Demonstrate the usefulness of Ham Radio.
Make yourself VISIBLE!.
Always let someone know of your where-abouts!
I operate with two trolling motors, fire extinguishers, deep cycle marine batteries, and appropriate marine lighting.
I have used this setup after dark. I do have and require use of PFD's and extras.(paddles, food and water, extra handy talky and VHF radios.) The two canoes(600 # rated capacity)
.deck and batteries, radio shack fold together for disassembly and transport.
The added weight derates the two canoes capacity by 350 pounds.
I am presently designing an aluminum fold-deck to replace the heavy wood deck.
I mention this aspect of my system for SAFETY purposes.
Do Not underestimate the power of Wind /Water/ Weather and the presence of other boaters who may not be aware of your presence!
Keep a navigation horn audible horn at the ready!
After dark ,make yourself visible .employing the the RED/Green bow lights
and white light astern which are readily available online/boating store/or Outdoor store.
These come in kits and are AA/D cell powered.
I crafted a small 4 foot tall/4 leg PVC water pipe(1/2 " diameter)TOWER , to which I mounted
an 18" pizza pan at the apex. The ATAS 100 was mounted with a barrel connector. I did implement
a tri-magnet mount but found that the so-239 /barrel adaptor created a high current point at the solder joint
for the ug-58 cable, so a few times when the radio tuned the ATAS, I was talking on the water for 2 hours plus to a ham
1250 miles away during a Fourth of July show from Grand Lake ,Colorado. I did not realize the high current had melted the center connector solder connection.
What saved the day was that I had placed the canoe/antenna on my picnic table
to test everything. At that point, I used the tower legs as helically wound off resonance radials. Two legs wound on 40 meters/15 harmonic. Two legs wound centered on 14.225 approximated 10 meter radials. These are connected to the pizza pan.
All the legs use 1/2" tees split to mount to a 4 point system on the cross bracers(Thwarts) with stainless hose clamps. No radials
are connected to the aluminum bracers or the gunwales/rails(pronounced "gunnels") around the rim of the canoe.
That procedure is reserved for the future.
I did trail an insulated, non-resonant length of 14# wire in the water with a bobber and weight(as a Ground Shoe), The results of that brought down the noise level but did not elevate signal strength.
I like the magmount because I can disassemble the system quickly. The wind load and weight of the antenna/magmount
are spread out over the pizza pan.
But I found that the magmount does not couple the counterpoise inefficiently.
To the point of melting the center conductor solder above five watts.
So therefore the barrel mount . with wide stainless washers to fit it's diameter.
The antenna analyzer showed resonance points with a narrow 50-100 khz
bandwidth and SWR near 1.5 consistently after some fine tuning ,on 40/20/15/10.
I Check for Return Loss with the analyzer and keep the coax lengths short.
That is fine by me for the mere fact that I don't hear a lot of band noise and QRM.
I do listen more than usual ,in case I'm the QRM!
This system exhibits low angle radiation off the water, with the pizza pan located
about 5 feet above the water level. On a particular lake, it is evident that
the close one gets to the dam, the higher the angle of radiation becomes. There is a lot of signal attenuation
and the antenna displays NVIS qualities ,especially on 40 meters.
In the center of a lake, the signals boom in!
My best contacts with 5 watts are South Africa/Hope ,Alaska. The UK, the 14300 MMSN Net.
UA stations/Spain/Portugal. Japan, Thailand, etc.
I'm not a contester, just like antenna experiments .
I've found that the ATAS -100 will work 6 meters, and Field Day/Jamboree on the Air
from 14.270 foot fourteeners is very busy. Either portable or mobile.
My setup was in a Field Day picture in a QST May edition a few years back.
The author of the article did not realize that the antenna on my mini tower was an ATAS,
and said that some operators work Field Day VHF/UHF. I had already submitted
my Field Day "water shack" to QST., with HF results.
On 6 meters you become the DX.
I'm not working for the wallpaper, I paper log my contacts.
I make videos with a salvaged drone cam that I can control with my phone app.
A note: I use Type 31 snap on RF chokes at the radio coax, type 31 toroid's on power connections
and keep all coax and power leads short as possible.
For mobile/vehicle mounting ,make sure you have a good strap/straps, as many is practical,
to the chassis of your vehicle.
So, on the ground, you can deploy and test "Ham stickes" and 40 meter sticks can be use on their harmonics on 15 meters.
The ATAS needs at least/minimum 1/4 wave radials on it's high hf band of 10 Meters. I don't recommend
placing radials on the ground or " fanned/pinned to the ground". Slightly elevated/6 " minimum above the ground
has resulted in a clos to 50 ohm impedance, and with the small diameter coil in the ATAS, that helps with easier tuning.
To implement 80 meters you need 80 meter 1/4 wave radials/or simply apply 1 or two 80 meter "Ham stickes" as your counterpoise. AND, craft a whip from stainless steel with a helix wind/or center coil to extend the inductance of the coil
inside the antenna for 80 meters. For your prototype, you can use stiff ,solid copper wire of the same gauge
as the ATAS whip diameter. Make the helix long and cut to frequency as you go. You can approximate the center loading version length by how long a wire you apply for the DIY helix (think Ham sticke) . A good antenna analyzer, a 2 position
antenna switch, allows you to go to 80 meter band on radio, by switching between bands and using the up down function on the Yaesu, trial and error, to get a resonance on 80 meters.
As with anything in Ham Radio Life, your mileage may vary.
73'
Hey AR 124 I love it when Hams experiment. Couple things, I'm pretty sure my Hi-Q screw driver antenna needs to not ground to the mount not sure with the Atas, Obviously it worked though. I agree with Charlie Kuehn mount it lower unless you cut radials to a quarter wave for each band. On radials I use speaker wire that is aluminum copper clad a little lighter and insulated . I think it is easier to coil up and deploy than the wire you used and it's cheap. For your radials make short jumpers that you leave attached to your mirror mount and then some type of quick disconnect ( power poles, banana plugs etc...) that should save you some time. For my 17' whip I use a 2' cement form metal stake cheap and you just pound it into the ground, not light or great for a backpack, but good for the park and cheap at home depot. Keep up the good work, Chuck KK6USY
Thanks for the info! I knew it might be a little tricky to tune especially on the lower bands since I mounted it so high, but it was the best I could do from out of the junk pile😂😂😂 I’m going to try to find a light weight camping stake to use as a ground mount and see how it does during a POTA or SOTA activation. Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed the video and thank you for watching!
For portable ops a single tuned elevated counterpoise typically works better. Also, when elavating counterpoise wires try around 30in.
Also, you may also try jamming the copper pipe in the ground.
A whiz meter will help tune your counterpoise length. Mark the length so the next time you setup you can start within an inch or two of the sweet spot.
You might even consider using a good low resistance push connect for you counterpoise like a 45A Anderson Powerpole.
I would love to see you clip a wire to the whip and run it nvis. Now that would be kool
It was actually working really well for NVIS because I was hearing stations on the border of Oklahoma but just didn’t try to reach them. I’m going to try and set up a contact to try some NVIS with it at some point. Thanks for watching!!
Спасибо Вам за видео!
I'm glad i found your video. I own a atas 120 which for last 3 month's has sat in corner of my shack. I been wanting to make it portable which is hard to find videos on yt. But now i can fab a mount and experiment. Thank you so much. 73 kg7fxn
Awesome!!! I'm glad I could help out! That's what I hope to show on this channel is that it's perfectly fine to experiment even if you might not know where to start. Thanks for watching!!
The ATAS-120 loves a good ground plain, increase the number of radials and like someone else said, move it closer to the ground.
I did get better results with additional ground radials, but I still need to do some more testing with it mounted closer to the ground. I really appreciate all the suggestions, and thank you for watching!!!
wow fantastic job thanks 73 from kb2uew
Thanks! I had a lot of fun with it once it tuned right😂😂
Great antenna but very expensive. If i had your space I'd run an end fed dipole or a long wire to a tree. I live in an apartment and all I can use is a metal bracket out the window 🙂
I was pretty surprised, as were others with its performance. I do agree though, it is definitely not a budget friendly antenna. I probably will end up stringing out a wire from the shop for HF, but I still need to make a balun. Anyway, thanks for the comment and thank you for watching!
We do the same with our mfj1979 whip. Swooper flag stake, a broom handle stuck in it with a trucker mount attached. 6 radials.. @airheadzradioadventures
Yeah, they’re pretty handy little mounts for sure! Thanks for watching!
Same antenna here and you will be very lucky to get 40 meters much 80. I never could get 40
Yeah, I’ve gotten it to tune on 40 meters but it’s pretty much a glorified dummy load🤣🤣
6:33 First one "perfect". Second one, "little better" ?!?! How's that work? 😁
LOL I'm always improving, plus my definition of perfect is far below your definition LOL
Glad to see you found my channel!!
@@ar124radio Good job! Amazing how good you can do on such a short/compromise antenna. 73 Mike
Try a Tri-pod for your go-kit!
Just found your videos,very impressed,I’m looking to build a manpack around either a FT857 or an FT891.could you post more about the radials needed to get other bands on the antenna please? Also,have a subscribe 😊
Sure!! I’ll try to do another video about the ins and outs of the antenna. Thanks for watching!!
hi you can get more out of it i worked the world with myn , you need about 16 radial vith small pegs driven in the ground, supoting structure of atas get uour self a 40 inci greound rod replace l bracat wit a grond arestor a sp 1000 from dimond makes wonders, i used the atas 120a on wehicle monted grond mounted sota bota and other operatins itsa a great purces 4 mobile deploiment
Oh yeah, it really does well for such a basic package. I made contacts on just about every band except 40 meters with it. I can now get it to tune up on 40, but I'm pretty sure it's basically acting like a dummy load because I have yet to make a contact with it on the voice portion of 40 meters.
Anyway, thanks for watching and I appreciate the advice!!
@@ar124radio atas tunes from 7 to 430 mhz if you want more you need te grpnd playn kit from them i think they stil produce the the wery long wip i have you buy it separatly along with ground playn kit then uou can go down below 7 mhz wit it its a slov tuning antenenna if you let the radio and antenna on auto tune it takes som time about 20 seconds to 120 seconds depending on what band you wer last every 6 monts you need to clean and grees it and cek 4 water damage
Have you tried driving the copper tube into the ground a foot or so, getting rid of the umbrella stand? 🙂
Cut off is about 6.5 MHZ, sorry no 80M. When you bottom out the antenna it works fine on VHF UHF
Yeah that was my experience too, but some others have said they’ve gotten it to work. 🤷♂️
Atas has a hard time going to and from 40 back to the other bands. Not too bad otherwise.
Yeah that’s been my luck with it on 40. I’m pretty sure that the ATAS is just a glorified dummy load on 40 meters😂😂
I have this antenna on my 2017 F150. It works to some degree but with the Aluminum body, I can't get a good ground. Have been trying various solutions with zero luck so far! I might try it portable on a tripod, just to get some use out of it. I wonder if anyone out there has had the same problem and found a solution??
That is one downside to this antenna is that it requires a pretty substantial ground to work properly. With the aluminum body on your truck it definitely won't help the situation and I have heard of several others having problems with antennas in general with the newer ford vehicles. The only thing you might try to get this antenna working is to add some copper strap down to the frame or make some type of ground plane kit to lay in the bed of the truck.
Hopefully you can get it going!! Thanks for watching!!
Have you found a solution yet Keith?
m-130A covers 80M
I am curious if you just used a tuned radial for each band if you would get better results. I find with a non ATAS vertical on a tripod and a radial extended out to 140 / FREQ in MHZ works great in theory you could just measure out one for each band connecting them all and it will use the correct one because of path of least resistance when the ATAS tunes in to the freq. Would love to see you try that. Been considering buying one for my FT-991A setup right now it requires me to get up and roll in or out counterpoise and adjust the coil on the Gabel Radio GRA-7350T vertical to the band I want to work. If I could push a button and not get up work be great !! :)
Yeah, I'd go for it if you're thinking about it. That's literally all I did for this experiment is a little thinking/math on what lengths would work for the bands that I intended to operate on and just kinda winged it LOL. The only thing that really limited me on the number of radials was the portability of the assembly. But design it to meet your unique operating conditions and don't be afraid to mess around with it!
Thanks for watching!!
Hi cute experiment. I also work this way in the car, I even estimated the radiating rod to 5 meters.... Just for information, there is no possibility to coordinate the ATAS120 on the 80 meters or tell me how to do it... I did not succeed. 4X4MN
Well I’ve heard it can work on 80, but like you, I have not been able to make it tune on that band.
@@ar124radio The ATAS 100/120 will present 30 ohms impedance at resonance withe the lowest SWR you find.
They do need a ground system /counterpoise. The radiating portion of the antenna is the coil and whip that is above the top of the housing. Good current flow requires a ground/strapping to vehicle chassis.
My example is my 17 foot canoe on which I deploy an 24 year old ATAS 100/FT-100 Yaesu.
For marine canoe stability on the water, I have a second canoe tied to the first canoe with a DIY
wooden deck,4 feet between at the beam width of each canoe. The assembly then becomes a catamaran.
I can fly a flag, like the Boy Scout Flag, or the scouts favorite, A large Red pirate flag!
my vessel instantly becomes visible to other boaters. Many are curious and will come along
side on Field Day or Jamboree on The Air. Others along side can hear the radio and I'm able to
Demonstrate the usueful ness of Ham Radio.
Make yourself VISIBLE!.
Always let someone know of your where-abouts!
I operate with two trolling motors, fire extinguishers, deep cycle marine batteries, and appropriate marine lighting.
I have used this setup after dark. I do have and require use PFD's and extras.(paddles,food and water, extra handy talky and VHF radios.) The two canoes(600 # rated capacity)
.deck and batteries, radio shack fold together for disassembly and transport.
The added weight derates the two canoes capacity by 350 pounds.
I am presently designing an aluminum fold-deck to replace the heavy wood deck.
I mention this aspect of my system for SAFETY purposes.
Do Not underestimate the power of Wind /Water/ Weather and the presence of other boaters who may not be aware of your presence!
Keep a navigation horn audible horn at the ready!
I crafted a small 4 foot tall/4 leg PVC water pipe(1/2 " diameter)TOWER , to which I mounted
an 18" pizza panat the apex. The ATAS 100 was mounted with a barrel connector. I did implement
a tri-magnet mount but found that the so-239 /barrel adaptor created a high current point at the solder joint
for the ug-58 cable, so a few times when the radio tuned the atas, I was talking on the water for 2 hours plus to a ham
1250 miles away during a Fourth of July show from Grand Lake ,Colorado. I did not realize the high current had melted the center connector solder connection.
What saved the day was that I had placed the canoe/antenna on my picnic table
to test everything. At that point, I used the tower legs as helically wound off resonance radials. Two legs wound on 40 meters/15 harmonic. Two legs wound centered on 14.225 approximated 10 meter radials. These are connected to the pizza pan.
All the legs use 1/2" tees split to mount to a 4 point system on the cross bracers with stainless hose clamps. No radials
are connected to the aluminum bracers or the gunwales/rails(pronounced "gunnels") around the rim of the canoe.
That procedure is reserved for the future.
I did trail an insulated, non-resonant length of 14# wire in the water with a bobber and weight, The results of that brought down the noise level but did not elevate signal strength.
I like the magmount because I can disassemble the system quickly. The wind load and weight of the antenna/magmount
are spread out over the pizza pan.
But I found that the magmount does couple the counterpoise inefficiently.
To the point of melting the center conductor solder above five watts.
So therefore the barrel mount . with wide stainless washers to fit it's diameter.
The antenna analyzer showed resonance points with a narrow 50-100 khz
bandwidth and SWR near 1.5 consistently after some fine tuning ,on 40/20/15/10.
I Check for Return Loss with the analyzer and keep the coax lengths short.
That is fine by me for the mere fact that I don't hear a lot of band noise.
This system exhibits low angle radiation off the water,withe the pizza pan located
about 5 feet above the water level. On a particular lake, it is evident that
the close one gets to the dam, the higher the angle of radiation becomes. There is a lot of signal attenuation
and the antenna displays NVIS qualities ,especially on 40 meters.
In the center of a lake, the signals boom in!
My best contacts with 5 watts are South Africa/Hope ,Alaska.The UK,the 14300 MMSN Net.
UA stations/Spain/Portugal.Japan,Thailand,etc.
I'm not a contester, just like antenna experiments .
I've found that the ATAS -100 will work 6 meters, and Field Day/Jamboree on the Air
from 14.270 foot fourteeners is very busy. Either portable or mobile.
My setup was in a Field Day picture in a QST May edition a few years back.
The author of the article did not realize that the antenna on my mini tower was an ATAS,
and said that some operators work Field Day VHF/UHF. I had already submitted
my Field Day "water shack" to QST., with HF results.
On 6 meters you become the DX.
I'm not working for the wallpaper, I paper log my contacts.
I make videos with a salvaged drone cam that I can control with my phone app.
A note: I use Type 31 snap on RF chokes at the radio coax, type 31 toroid's on power connections
and keep all coax and power leads short as possible.
For mobile/vehicle mounting ,make sure you have a good strap/straps, as many is practical,
to the chassis of your vehicle.
So, on the ground, you can deploy and test "Ham stickes" and 40 meter sticks can be use on their harmonics on 15 meters.
The ATAS needs at least/minimum 1/4 wave radials on it's high hf band of 10 Meters. I don't recommend
placing radials on the ground or " fanned/pinned to the ground". Slightly elevated/6 " minimum above the ground
has resulted in a clos to 50 ohm impedance, and with the small diameter coil in the ATAS, that helps with easier tuning.
To implement 80 meters you need 80 meter 1/4 wave radials/or simply apply 1 or two 80 meter "Ham stickes" as your counterpoise. AND, craft a whip from stainless steel with a helix wind/or center coil to extend the inductance of the coil
inside the antenna for 80 meters. For your prototype, you can use stiff ,solid copper wire of the same gauge
as the ATAS whip diameter. Make the helix long and cut to frequency as you go. You can approximate the center loading version length by how long a wire you apply for the DIY helix (think Ham sticke) . A good antenna analyzer, a 2 position
antenna switch, allows you to go to 80 meter band on radio, by switching between bands and using the up down function on the Yaesu, trial and error, to get a resonance on 80 meters.
As with anything in Ham Radio Life, your mileage may vary.
73'
Next time you make a video please leave the annoying music out. At times the music was louder than your voice.
I will need your help on the next video. Is there an email address that I can send my footage to for you to make the video?