Optibeam OBW 10-5
So I took the plunge and picked up an Optibeam OBW 10-5 yesterday, this is a 5 Band Wire Beam for 10 thru 20m, when I picked it up it was just rolled up into one big bundle, that should have been a red flag right there, its taken me a whole day to unravel the wires and bits and bobs, unfortunately one of the plastic blocks that holds the fibreglass spreaders is split in half, hopefully I can work around it, the silicon rope and main support ropes have been cut, normally that wouldnt be an issue but the support ropes in this antenna are pre cut and have fittings done at the factory, another headache which im going to have to sort out, the last issue is the fibreglass spreaders have a lot of mould/mildew growth on them so I need to find a safe way to clean that off without splintering the fibreglass so scrubbing is out of the question, the joys
The reasoning behind this antenna is simple, its less of an eyesore for a 5 band beam antenna, it gives me basically a 2 element for 10/12/15/17/20m and although im sacrificing an element on 10m as im currrently running a 3 El LFA its a sacrifice that gets me access to 4 other bands, with some of the nice DXpeditons coming up in the next 12 months i need to look at other bands so this is the start, a bit of work to do before this will finally get on the air but I would rather take my time and get it done right.
