In addition I benefited from the excellent hexbeam sites of Holger, DL7IO, Dave, W1GQL, and Dave, W6OT. Links to their sites are at the left on
this page.

This is the third hexbeam I have built. All three have been essentially the same from a performance standpoint. The differences have been in
the mechanical structure and the components used for the hexbeams. They are described briefly here:
  • The first version used Crappie fishing poles for spreaders and a baseplate made of a polyethylene kitchen cutting board with angle
    brackets to fasten it to the center post.
  • The second version was the same except for use of an aluminum baseplate.
  • This current version described here uses fiberglass tubes for spreaders, an aluminum baseplate but with a square base flange to
    fasten it to the center post rather than the angle brackets. In addition, more care has been given to durability in rain, snow, wind and sun
    conditions. Lastly, this current version features improved fasteners that make assembly much easier.

This hexbeam was constructed with the idea of a quality antenna at a very economical cost using mainly hardware found at on line sites and
Home Depot or Lowes. The devil is in the details and this site hopefully will provide photos and hints that might save a new hexbeam builder
some frustration that I encountered and learned to work around. The total cost of materials is well under $300.

The detailed steps for construction of this hexbeam can be printed out for more convenient use. The general activities of each of the seven
steps are outlined at the top part of each page. The details are provided as captions under the photos in order from left to right. Most photos
can be clicked to enlarge.

Now, after looking at all this, you might decide it's too much work. Well, I can tell you it has been a barrel of fun for me. But if you aren't that
excited about seeing the fruit of your own labor, you can buy a hexbeam and all the reports I have seen on it are very good. Some have
commented that the price is a bit steep but others say the price is worth the quality and performance. In any event the commercial version is to
be found here.

Additional help on hexbeams can be obtained at the hexbeam user group.
Hex beam by K4KIO
T
his site provides guidelines to build a hexbeam R.F. antenna for the
five amateur radio bands, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters. Specifications
are provided for both low band and high band versions of the hexbeam.

The hexbeam offers a number of features as follows:

  • Forward gain and front/back comparable to a two element Yagi.
  • Five bands with low SWR
  • Low noise performance.
  • Low weight and low wind load
  • Construction from general hardware components
  • Ease of adjustment
  • Relatively inexpensive compared to the commercial version

I received a lot of help from Steve Hunt, G3TXQ in the theoretical aspects of this
site and you can get more familiar with hexbeam theory by visiting Steve's
hexbeam site.
Site publication date 12/2005
Page revision date 9/2007
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Five band hex beam of K4KIO
Alert!
If you are thinking of building this hex beam, you should consider a quite new development in hex
beam design before proceeding. The new design by G3TXQ is a broadband hex beam. It performs
better than this classic hex beam and is easier to build. Learn about it here.