From Phil's 09/13/03 email:

After trials with 90 degree welded hubs VK2ABQ style , I then went on to the g6xn moxon and then again on to the w4rnl version with the 40/140 degree angles, as a single bander on 15 meters this seemed awesome against my reference dipole and stayed up in the air for over 12 months. The desire for more efficient multi bander prompted me to look at the Hexbeam and correspond with EI7BA John Tait who was very helpful as well as Dave Douglass VK2DPD who is well into home brew hexbeams.

So , (see above photograph) this moxon frame started out as an attempt at a HEXBEAM  with centre hub being a  1.5 inch  hexagon nut around which I welded 6 x 2 foot long pieces of 1 x 1 inch angle iron. Initially I used cable ties to hold the 5 metre long fishing rods in position.  When I reverted back to the MOXON, I left the angles at 60 and 120 degrees  just pushing in two of the opposing rods which acted as good support for the feeders and opposite side.  This prototype has been up in the air nearly 18 months now and has withstood all sorts of weather thrown at it !!  In fact, the wires have stretched a bit I think, and resonance isn't as good as when it first went up but it seems to be doing the trick so I have left it for now.

All  four bands are fed independently with feed points soldered and sealed with silicone then bound for good measure with self amalg`g tape.  Using the KISS approach,  I actually salvaged my single band MOXONs!!  This is where the two extra fishing rods came in useful to support the weight of the RG58 on the one side and of course to balance the whole thing off on the other side.  She really had to look the part for the XYL!!

It was no picnic for tuning even with the MFJ analyser - up down, up down, up down.  In the end I put little wire tails  on (see above photograph), hanging from screw connectors to adjust for best resonance .  Fortunately they haven't touched yet !! I call these my WaSP tails.  HI HI

The bracing is thin polypropylene line taken from a raised centre pole flexes the tips of the rods (hexbeam style) thus sort of layering the 4 bands at each of the ends. A simple glue gun comes in handy here for tacking in position.  I use cheap stranded copper wire  - the lengths and critical distances (disregarding the WaSP tails !! ) used are from Cebic W4RNL's info.

While I most certainly don't claim full optimized performance, I know that my MOXON is working well from the comparative reports that I have received over the years. 

 

73

Phil
G0WSP  (with the WaSP tails)