Help on an old PDL II antenna

[K4MIC-Mike Turner]

Hoping someone out there can help me on this one. I use an old 11 meter co-phased beam antenna that a lot of you may be familiar with known as a PDL II. I have this antenna tuned for 10 meters, and I also use it for 12 with a tuner. The antenna works very good, and I have made many contacts around the world including China and Japan. Problem is, last Fridays thunderstorm caused some damage to it. The elements, boom, and gamma match are all still in fine condition, but the hub on the end of the boom that holds the elements in place broke. The hubs are plastic, and there are two of them, one on the front and one on the back. The antenna has been out of production and the company, avanti antenna, has been closed for many years. I haven't had any success finding new or NOS hubs for it. If someone out there has some parts for this antenna, or knows where I could find parts, please let me know. Thanks,

Mike Turner
K4MIC

[W4PJW]

I am not familiar with the PDLII but it is amazing how many solutions you can come up with using clamps and materials from DX Engineering
http://www.dxengineering.com/search/department/clamps-and-fasteners

Poke around on their web site and see what you can find.

Also google Hex Beam and see what you come up with - check out http://k4kio.com/

Hope these ideas help.

Jeff

[Wayne Bowyer]

Her is a pdf of the antenna manual:  http://pdl-2.com/PDL-2_AV122.pdf   Possibly with the old parts and a diagram you may be able to fab something up. You say the hubs are made of plastic. If you could find some scrap plastic of adequate size and strength you might be able to do some cutting and drilling.

Wayne
n4eyz

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[jss608]

Looking at Fig 11, the 1008 Plastic Hub, from the antenna manual from PJW, it looks like you might be able to fashion a replacement from a 2 inch OD PVC cross which has a 1-5/8 inch ID, which seems to be the boom diameter.  May have to use some smaller PVC tubing stubs inside the cross to match the 5/8 inch radial diameters (or whatever).  I measured a 2 inch PVC elbow and ID was very close to 1-5/8 inch.  Hope this helps.

Jess, w4pqk

[jss608]

Looking closer the manual came from EYZ

Jess

[Ray Colvin]

Hi Mike
I looked at some of my PDL-II parts but the hubs broke on mine in an Easter ice storm several years ago. Hope you can find them.
Have a good day...Ray KE4HVR

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From: "W4PJW" <jmrin...@yahoo.com>
To: valle...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 11:42:01 AM
Subject: [Valley Hams] Re: Help on an old PDL II antenna

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[jss608]

2 crosses, cut off one leg on each, slip over boom, rotate one 90degrees, fasten to boom, use pvc tubing stubs to fit the radials to the 2 inch PVC crosses.  One set of radials will be slightly offset to the other.   See the attached sketch.  73, Jess, w4pqk

[K4MIC-Mike Turner]

Thanks to everyone for the pointers. I have one more avenue to travel to possibly procure a set of NOS hubs. If that turns out to be a dead end, I will try Jess W4PQK PVC cross idea. Thanks again to all, and especially Jess.

Mike
K4MIC

On Saturday, August 18, 2012 10:14:36 PM UTC-4, K4MIC-Mike Turner wrote: