The YouTubers Bunch

Today I’m tuning the Yagi after raising it another 6–7 metres on the upgraded mast. As expected, the resonant frequency has shifted higher, so the job is to bring it back down into the right part of the band. Rather than starting again, I’m extending the elements slightly and trying a simple little loop on the ends – partly for RF behaviour, partly because it just feels like a neater way of doing it. This "loop fix" is not about current heating the ends – it’s voltage trying to escape. A sharp tip concentrates it like a lightning rod. Add a loop and suddenly nothing to see. Another way of looking at this is that at high power, a sharp element tip is basically trying to turn into a tiny plasma ball (corona discharge). If we round it off, it never gets to form = lot less heat.

This video covers:

dropping the tower again (of course…)
measuring and extending the driven element and reflector
a quick-and-dirty field method using an SWR calculator
checking and correcting alignment on the beam
dealing with wind, rope stretch and the realities of working at height
and a first check of the new resonance once it’s back up

There’s also a bit of discussion around:

why height changes tuning
why every part of a mast system is effectively a single point of failure
and how small gains (a few dB here and there) all add up to a noticeably better station

I’ve slightly overcooked the length – but it’s close enough for now and easily trimmed later.

Next job will be building a proper choke to replace the temporary one, and squeezing a bit more performance out of the system.

Thanks for watching – see you on the next one.

PS : the "loop fix"… It’s not current heating the ends – it’s voltage trying to escape. A sharp tip concentrates it like a lightning rod. Add a loop and suddenly nothing to see. Another way of looking at this is that at high power, a sharp element tip is basically trying to turn into a tiny plasma ball. If we round it off, it never gets to form. Easy. Callum.

After getting the first section up in Part 1, I go back over everything, tighten it all down, fix a few small issues, and then push on to extend the mast to its full height with the Yagi on top.

This part includes:

– dropping the tower again to make final adjustments
– trimming the top section and correcting clearances
– adding the third pole and refining the guying geometry
– routing coax through the mast
f- itting connectors and sorting out a few “field engineering” surprises
a- nd working through the reality that every single part of this system is a single point of failure

There’s a moment where you realise the scale of what you’ve built – and also that there’s no going back once it starts going up.

On the Sunday, we clear back trees to give the antenna space it deserves… and then comes the first proper full lift to around 19 metres with the Yagi on top.

I’ve left that section to breathe a bit, with some rather atmospheric music – because honestly, watching something like this go up feels a bit special.

Final tweaks include:

– correcting the magnetic sensor orientation
– tightening clamshells and hardware
– checking the new rotator behaviour
– and noting the shift in resonance now the antenna is at height

The result?

Around 2.5–3 dB improvement from the extra height alone — which in radio terms is a very real step forward.

There’s still more to do, but the tower is now properly up and working.

We’ll do some on-air testing and live streams next to see how it performs in the real world.

Thanks for watching.

00:00 Back on the tower – checks and adjustments
01:15 Dropping the mast again
02:13 Cutting and correcting the top section
03:18 Preparing for the third pole
05:17 Guying and geometry setup
08:02 First partial lift and alignment
10:43 Feeding coax through the mast
12:19 Fitting connectors and testing
17:18 Final prep before full lift
18:50 Tree clearance needed
19:24 Sunday – clearing space
22:42 Final lift and Monday checks
23:45 Fixing sensor and tightening hardware
25:19 Height gains and performance discussion