ultra lightweight dual band YAGI for SATs
The goal of the Lakeside YAGI antenna project is to provide a toolkit for building super lightweight handheld YAGI antennas for HAM radio SOTA and LEO satelites. The Lakeside YAGI antenna kit is named after the "CAPERLAN Lakeside" brand of fishing poles sold by Decathlon sports gear outlet. While fishing rods seems perfect for such antennas, they are conical and difficult to drill, making the mounting of YAGI elements challenging. Thanks to 3D priting and parametric design tools such as Build123D, antenna mounting clamps were designed to match the varying diameter of the conical rod.
The author's antennas are built using the Decathlon CAPERLAN Lakeside 100 3m variant, using the thickest only pole of the three. The weight of the 113 cm long pole is 67 grams with tip diameter 15.8 mm and base diameter 19.5 mm. The antenna elements are made of ubiquitous and cheap 1/8 inch (3.2mm) aluminium welding rods.
The Lakeside YAGI kit accomodates for various element mounting styles:
- Fixed elements glued to the rod with epoxy. Quick, simple, lighweight, stable. This is autor's default choice for 70cm YAGI, which is to be transported in the car or carried over short distance hikes.
- Elements clicked over the rod, stabilized by a epoxied dock. Requires a bit more effort to build, less stable, but the elements will pop out instead of break when strained.
- Elements held by terminal aka chocolate blocks. The brass elements are removed from their original housings and heat pressed into 3D printed plastic. Great for 2m elements, easy to screw with a swiss army pocket knife.
Teleskopický prut Lakeside 100 3 m 199 Kč https://www.decathlon.cz/p/teleskopicky-prut-lakeside-100-3-m/_/R-p-334270