After operating on 6 meters for a year with a single OA-50 Par loop, I decided that it was time to upgrade a little bit. I made the decision to add a second loop and here is how things went. This article is mainly about the install, as I haven’t had a whole lot of change to assess difference between the single loop and the stacked pair. I contacted Dale, W4OP direct as he is no longer selling amateur antennas through a distributor. The usual fast replies to email and great information exchange happened. The antenna showed up a few days later, followed by the phasing harness a couple of more days. I was not in a big hurry to get this up as I knew my schedule was full.
I had initially planned on replacing all of the mast pipe with new stuff, but after pulling the one 6 meter loop and VHF vertical off of the antenna, I figured I would just continue to use the existing mast. I did end up adding an additional piece to the bottom to allow the lower loop to clear the roof.
I made sure to tune each antenna carefully on a ground mounted tripod with the antenna analyzer. Each was tuned at 50.200 per the recommendations from the factory, to allow for a decent bandwidth and the potential for detuning in foggy or other extreme conditions.
The antennas are spaced at 12 feet apart per the recommendations. One antenna is mounted upside down to allow access to the connector for the phasing harness. The phasing harness can be seen in the pictures and is made from two pieces of 12 foot long RG-11 with a T connector to join them and allow for coax connection. You can see my hardline connecting if you look at the photo album with the close up pictures.
I was concerned that I would have to take the mast pipe back down and tune one or both antennas or adjust feedline placement after mounting but the SWR with the antennas co-phased were the same as they were individually on the test tripod, and I was very glad about this. Local reports so far are basically no difference, and the local beacon signal strength is unchanged. Unfortunately, the band wasn’t wide open during this installation like my last one, so I’m waiting patiently for a band opening to hit to evaluate how the antenna is going to work for me.
Special thanks to KG4KXV (also known as Ezell Rufus Washington, Esq) for his assistance in holding the pipe. He’s a specialist at that.
