The HAARP – by Phil Simpson M0PXS

Well, for those of you who look things up on the internet, you will have great fun with searching Google for the word
HAARP as you will be confronted by a huge American research antenna farm up in Alaska. My use of the word
HAARP isn’t tied up with the mysteries of world Super Powers; it is simply an acronym for Ham Amateur Antenna for
Radio Propagation.

After my first attempts of building a 6m antenna to the designs by the late Les Moxon, G6XN from a computer
program called MOXGEN which I stumbled upon whilst researching small beam antennas, I started to wonder if
there could be more gain to be had by adding additional elements, well gain back to my old friend the internet and
after following many links and dead ends, I stumbled upon an article in the July 2010 edition of Radcom penned by
Ron Stone GW3YDX (some may know of him through his Company Vine Antennas). Here he presented something he
called the “Super Moxon”.

Intrigued, I proceeded to model it with the 4NEC2 antenna modelling software, which I had recently downloaded
from the internet and had been playing with. Well from the measurements provided it showed some potential,
although some of the build materials where a little light weight for my liking, but by adopting some of the quality
materials advocated by both Justin G0KSC (of Innovantennas) and Steve G0UIH/VK2IAY/3D2FI (of Vortex Antennas), I
was able to produce an antenna of good performance, measuring up to Ron Stones predications, yet with the build
quality of a more robust antenna. Well this quite well covered my needs for the magic band.

Now my thoughts turned to a compact beam antenna for the SSB portion of 2m, again my thoughts went back to the
Moxon, which as a two element antenna from experience would perform moderately well, but without the punch
that I felt maybe needed on 2m, so revisiting the article on the Super Moxon, I again modelled the antenna, but this
time although moderately happy I took the antenna through another step by adding a further pair of elements. This
is where modelling on the computer really comes into its own, gone are the days of wasted aluminium and lots of
off-cuts of wire, just a couple of clicks of the mouse and a tap on the keyboard and voila, another antenna.

Well after a few hours of adjusting spacing’s, lengths etc, I had in front of me an antenna which appeared to offer
the gain I wanted and to boot in a very small footprint. On the following pages I will present screen shots of
everything, from the computer design, through to actual photos taken during the build and testing phase to the final
step, the on air testing. I hope I will demonstrate that this build was not as daunting as it first may appear, just
remember the old adage, “measure twice and cut once”, (yes I fell into that trap too, but fortunately it was only that
I measured something too long, so in this case no wasted materials).
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Sit back and relax, as here I show various imaged from the computer design phase:

Fig 1. After all the hard work had been done of measuring out each individual part of the antenna taking into account
event the dimensions of the tube I was intending to use.

Fig 2. So after all that effort, this is a 3 dimensional model, note the “purple” blob, that is the feed point.

NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE - ©Phil Simpson 2014

Fig 3. So now having run the first real calculation I was presented by a series of figures that appeared to represent a
successful antenna. (note the design frequency was 144,300Mhz).

Fig 4. A more traditional horizontal pattern, which gave a peak of 15.2dBi and a beam width of just short of 60
degrees.

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Fig 5. Again another antenna plot, but this time the vertical profile, with a peak take off at around 6 degrees.

Fig 6. This time both graphs combined. It shows the same information as the preceding two.

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Fig 7. Now a plot detailing the SWR over the frequency range of 144 to 144.6Mhz, it is at just below 1 : 1.01 at the
target of 144.3Mhz, the Reflected Co-efficient is -47db at the target.

Fig 8. Next a graph showing the gain and Front/Back gain, here the gain is shown as 15.22dBi with an F/B of 13.98dBi
(remember just subtract 2.15dB to get an idea if dBd).

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Fig 9. Nearly there with the design pictures, this one gives you the Impedance (which is 50.4Ω for our target
frequency), you will note that on the lower graph the Phase angle is only -0.199 degrees.

Fig 10. Finally for the last of the design, the ubiquitous Smith Chart, which I think is self-explanatory.

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Ok you’ve probably got bored, so here comes some real photos of the build stages:

Fig 11. Everything starts with a drawing and this is no Fig 12. An interesting tool and device, this is a tool for
different. putting “inserts” i.e. little treaded bushes into sheet
material (this is for a 6mm insert).

Fig 13. After drilling oversized holes here we can see Fig 14. Yet another view, I even use a scalpel to scribe the
some inserts fitted. aluminium to make sure I have everything “just so”.

Fig 15. From the Rule, you can just about start to see the Fig 16. When it came to the feed point, this was made
scale of things. from a piece of insulated material, but in my case I put a
thick piece of heat shrink around the middle for the tubes
to “butt” against.

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Fig 17. A neat little pipe bender, great for tube up to Fig 18. The completed tubes bend to 90 degrees all ready
3/8”, the scale isn’t too accurate, so I roughed them to 90 for trimming to length.
degrees, but then “tweaked” them.

Fig 19. Here a “corner” set up against a quick jig, note Fig 20. Well after the bending and trimming, here we
the markings at the bottom (each corner style has a have all our corners cut and duly marked up.
letter).

Fig 21.Corners C and D have been joined using an Fig 22. Maybe it is overkill, but I added a spacer made
insulator (this is Nylon66), this helps with mechanical from heat shrink tubing, here shown on corners E and F.
strength).

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Fig 23. Finally for the last bit of mechanical strength, the
whole insulator is covered with an adhesive lined heavy
walled heat shrink. (no moisture will every get in).
Fig 25. The 3 turn balun in place near the feed point. You
can also see the “Stauff” pipe clamps used throughout
the construction.
Fig 27. The completed antenna. Just a fraction over 1m
long and about 700mm wide. Not bad for 6 elements.
NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE - ©Phil Simpson 2014
Fig 24. The larger ½” tubes are slotted to allow for
miniature stainless hose clamps to tighten the corners to
the main elements.
Fig 26. A close up of the direct connection of the feed
point. The coax is sealed with self-amalgam tape and
wrapped with insulating tape for UV resistance.
Ultimately the terminals will be “painted” with rubber
glue to act as a further weatherproof seal.
Fig 28. The antenna mounted on a short post (about ½
wavelength above ground) pointed skywards for testing.
Fig 29. A close-up of the pipe clamps showing them all Fig 30. The Rigmaster and Netbook connected to the
mounted the same way, so they act as “drip loops” under antenna running some enhanced tests.
the antenna.

Fig 31. A view of the “bespoke” mounting bracket, here you can see it fabricated from a spare length of the boom
material, with spacers from the main boom, this keeps it way from the main elements.

Fig 32. Finally the clamp showing the mounting to a pole, the clamp was a left over from another project.

NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE - ©Phil Simpson 2014

Now the results, was it worth all the effort ?:

Fig 33. The first plot generated by the analyser looked promising, an SWR of under 1 : 1.5 all the way to 145.9Mhz

Fig 34. Around the area of interest (144.3Mhz) shows a near perfect result, and to be honest less than 1 : 1.1 across
the range of interest

Fig 35. Here we have the Relative Loss Co-efficient graph, again the peak is exactly where it was predicted.

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Fig 36. Above can be seen the impedance plot, the Z is very flat across the range and near to 50Ω

Fig 37. The Phase angle plot is just as encouranging

Fig 38. Lastly I show the measured Smith Chart for my HAARP antenna, very small deviation of impedance/SWR
across the range from 144.0 to 144.6Mhz.

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The Prediction (model) vs Measured

Calculated @ 5m Measured @ 5m
Impedance 50.4 + j0.18 49.5 + j0.9
Parallel form 50.4 // j1e4 49.5 // j0
SWR 50 1 : 1.01 1 : 1.02
RL Loss -47.221dB -39.500dB
Series Component 6296 pF 1360 pF
Parallel Component 0.076 pF 0 pF

Table 1. Shows the predicted results against the actual measured results at the test location.

So, the final question, was it worth it?, well, all I can say is definitely yes, as I sit here finishing off this article, all I
hear on my rig is the dulcet tones of the musical GB3VHF beacon located near Gravesend echoing throughout the
shack (just remember it only puts out 30w and that beacon is just south of Gravesend some 250km South of my
QTH). Not bad for 2 metres.

Best 73

Phil M0PXS

NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE - ©Phil Simpson 2014

 144.300Mhz HAARP
960
776
618
434
276
742

734

724

55 12 15

135 86 100 69 82 90

Long Elements - 18 gauge 1/2" aluminium tube

Short Elements - 14/16 gauge 3/8" aluminium tube

Boom 32mm Square aluminium tube