Ultra Beam UB-V40 8 Band Vertical HF Antennas Instruction Manual
- October 30, 2023
- Ultra Beam
Table of Contents
Ultra Beam UB-V40 8 Band Vertical HF Antennas Instruction Manual
Ultra Beam
HF antennas are and always have been the most important component of a radio station.
Monoband antennas have always been the most powerful solution, but obviously require multiple masts and antennas: a very expensive and not always practical solution.
For many decades, most radio amateurs accepted this and used multiband antennas (trap antennas) for space reasons, with their inevitable compromises.
To achieve ideal resonance and the specific antenna lengths required to allow antennas to operate optimally at any desired HF frequency, Ultra Beam has used stepper motors to achieve monoband performance. Ultra Beam already offers you tomorrow’s technology: a single antenna that provides the highest monoband performance.
Thank you for choosing Ultra Beam! It will be fascinating for you to be able to control and modify the performance of your antenna fully remotely and from the comfort of your radio room.
Just like the Yagis, Ultrabeam’s vertical antenna works with a variable length radiator. Except that in this design, the radiator runs vertically. To make this work smoothly against gravity, a thinner tube is built inside the thick GRP tube as a guidance up to about 5m height. The drive is the same as for the Beams, the controller is the RCU-06 with the firmware for the Vertical. The lower end of the motor unit has a special bracket, this is placed on a piece of pipe fixed to the roof or ground. A 50mm diameter aluminum tube about 1m long is supplied, maximum diameter of the stand tube is 50mm.
The construction height is about 11m, so a λ/4 radiator from 6 to 40m can be realized. With a suitable radial system, the result is a very efficient and always perfectly matched vertical antenna. Due to the very flat radiation this antenna is very well suited for DX traffic. The UB-V40 requires a four-wire control cable. The antenna should be absolutely braced, a bracing clamp is supplied. Further guy material like ropes, clamps and thimbles are not included. For connecting the radials, the motor unit has an anti-twist metal rail at the bottom for clamping multiple wires. The coax connector is a PL female connector. The antenna weighs 8.1 kg without standpipe.
Technical data:
- Height 10.5 m
- 1 element vertical
- Requires radials
Scop of delivery:
- Antenna Art. No. 12230
- Touch Screen Controller RCU-06
- Guy Clamp
- Pole clamp for standpipe with max. 50 mm diameter
- 30 m control cable with plug, ready for use (other lengths on request)
- 100cm tube piece, aluminum, 50 mm
Scheme of the antenna
Components
Parts of your Ultra Beam Vertical antenna (see Fig. 1):
- Motor unit with FLEXSEAL
- 50 mm aluminum mast tube
- 5.30 m GRP telescope section
- Three 1.50 m GRP tubes with aluminum ring
- 1.50 m GRP pipe without aluminum ring
- Five 1.50 m PVC pipes
- Heat shrink tubes
- Mast assembly
- AP clamp
- 20 mm cap metal
- Controller
Mounting
The antenna setup is simple and quick. We recommend that you follow the
individual steps and their sequencen from the instructions, then virtually
nothing can go wrong.
STEP DESCRIPTION
- Fastening the motor bracket and mast bracket
- Preparation of the telescope element
- Installation of the elements on the motor unit
Fastening the motor bracket and mast bracket
Inside the fiberglass tube that carries the antenna element is a PVC pipe, which ensures that the copper strip can move vertically as smoothly as possible (about 10 meters vertically). In the first step, one of the five PVC pipes, which will be connected later, must be mounted to the motor unit.
Before you can plug the PVC pipe onto the PVC support pipe of the motor unit, the blue adhesive tape and the foil of the double-sided adhesive tape must first be removed. Then push the PVC pipe with the wider opening first onto the support tube of the motor unit as far as it will go (see Fig. 2). Afterwards, the connection point must be additionally fixed with insulating tape.
Pull the FLEXSEAL rubber sleeve over the assembled PVC pipe with the wider
opening ahead up to the motor unit and press it there onto the support tube as
far as it will go (important!). Then tighten the large hose clamp (see Fig.
3).
Now the motor unit can be mounted to the mast plate. Align the mast plate so that of the outer drill holes, the smaller holes point towards the support tube and the FLEXSEAL (see Fig. 4). Then place the lower trestles on the mast plate. One of the wider trestles is placed on the outer smaller drill holes (will later lie under the FLEXSEAL ). One of the narrower trestles is placed on the inner smaller holes on the other side of the mast plate (see Fig. 5). Then lift the motor unit and place it on the trestles and the mast plate ( see Fig. 6). Check that the motor unit is well and stable on the trestles and then place the appropriate trestles on top (wider trestle on
FLEXSEAL , narrower trestle on other side). Insert the 4 Allen screws from above into the holes of the trestles ( see Fig. 7). Caution: For the narrower trestles, place washers between them! Then fix the Allen screws on the underside of the mast plate with the corresponding nuts and washers and tighten them **(see Fig. 8).
**
You can decide for yourself whether to mount the mast bracket and the mast now
or at the very end of the antenna assembly. For the assembly you only have to
assemble the mast clamps, push them over the aluminum mast and finally screw
them with the mast plate in the still free holes (see Fig. 9).
Preparation of the telescopic element
The GRP telescope section consists of four conically shaped telescope sections. By pulling the individual sections apart, a total length of about 5.40 m is achieved. However, this length may differ by a few cm depending on the setup, but this is normal and not a fault.
First, simply pull the individual elements apart until you feel resistance.
From this point on, the elements must be pulled apart a little further
without force (!) until the pulled-out element is really stiff and tight and
can no longer slip back vertically. Attention: It is very important to
approach the whole thing without force and not to pull the elements apart
infinitely! Check the total length of the telescope section after you have
pulled out all elements, this must be at least 5.40 m! If your telescope
section is still too short, you should look at which joints may need to be
touched up. When the total length fits and everything is tight, the joints
must be sealed weatherproof with the selfadhesive shrink tubes. To do this,
pull the shrink tubes over the center of the respective joints (see Fig. 10
and Fig. 11) and then carefully heat them with a heat gun until a small
amount of escaping adhesive can be seen all around the edges of the shrink
tubes (see Fig. 12).
Note : Excessive heating can damage the element!
Finally, put the end piece, the 20 mm metal cap, on the top element. Pull the last piece of heat shrink tubing over the cap as you did with the elements and heat this, too, with the heat gun until the adhesive slightly oozes out all around the edges. The elements are now completely watertight.
Installation of the elements on the motor unit
First complete the PVC pipe, which will be inside the GRP pipes. In step 1,
you have already joined the first section of PVC pipe to the support pipe of
the motor unit. It is best to first join the four other PVC pipe sections
together before you assemble them to the first PVC pipe. To do this, push the
wide end of one pipe onto the narrow end of the next pipe as far as it will go
(the order does not matter) and then fix the joints properly with insulating
tape (see Fig. 13 and Fig. 14).
Fig. 14: Example of fixing with insulating tape. The tubes in the picture are not up to date!
The four joined PVC pipe sections are then placed on the first PVC pipe connected to the motor unit and the joint is also fixed with insulating tape.
Once all the PVC pipes have been installed, it is the turn of the GRP pipes. The first element is the GRP pipe without metal ring. Take the element and pull it over the PVC pipes to the front of the motor unit. Push it into the FLEAXSEAL rubber sleeve as far as it will go (!). Then tighten the smaller hose clamp on the FLEXSEAL.
Then add all the other GRP tubes to the first tube. Pull them over the PVC pipes with the metal ring first and put the ring on the previous GRP pipe (see Fig. 15). The joints are weatherproof and do not require additional sealing.
Finally, the telescopic element is plugged onto the last GRP pipe.
Guying the antenna
Under normal environmental conditions, the antenna requires only one set of guy ropes, which should be attached at about half the height of the antenna. To do this, mount the enclosed clamp over the aluminum ring of one of the GRP elements (ropes must be ordered separately).
If you want to further secure your antenna beyond that, you can add another set of ropes at a height of 3 meters.
Note: Attaching the ropes at a 45° angle is ideal for a secure guy system.
Installation of the radials
In the following, we would like to remind you of some considerations regarding vertical antennas and their radials. The performance of a vertical antenna depends on two main factors:
a) Type of installation: floor or roof installation
b) Number of radials
But what makes our antennas completely different and more powerful than conventional antenna systems is their ability to change their length to achieve an actual length of 1/4 wavelength without the use of traps or the like. This is a prerequisite for achieving high antenna efficiency. However, the same principle applies to the Ultra Beam Vertical antenna as to any λ/4 vertical antenna: the counterpart of the radiator is needed below in
the form of radials as a counterweight!
Already with a few resonant radials with a wavelength of about 1/4 λ an
acceptable performance can be achieved. However, should you have enough space,
we strongly recommend installing as many radials as possible.
Considering that the angle between the antenna and the radials determines the
impedance at the feed point of the antenna, we recommend an angle of 40° to
achieve an actual impedance of 50 ohms. To avoid high ground losses, use
“Elevated Radials” if possible, i.e. do not place or bury the radials directly
on the ground. The default length of the radiator stored in the controller for
the different bands was determined with three radials per band, braced about
30 cm above the ground.
It should be emphasized that the highest performance of an antenna is not always achieved at the best possible SWR (standing wave ratio). Better a low impedance radial network and perhaps a slightly worse SWR, which can usually be compensated with the tuner in the device, than a perfectly matched antenna, but 80% of the power burns in the earth resistance.
WiMo Antennen und Elektronik GmbH
Am Gäxwald 14, D-76863 Herxheim Tel. (07276) 96680 FAX 9668-11
http://www.wimo.com e-mail: info@wimo.com
