BATC Forum

Hi all
New to ATV and microwaves so forgive me if this is a dumb question. My friend has offered me an unused 35 element beam for 1296 MHz free of charge. How successful will this be on 1240 MHZ TV? I haven't done the sums yet.
Wolverhampton to Stoke for the nearest repeater is a fair stretch.

Which member has a station near me please and would be willing to assist me with my Portsdown project rx and tx especially its testing? The getting started guides, wiki and forum are splendid but there's no substitute for seeing ATV first hand.

All the best
David M0YDH
Wolver'ampton

David,
My experience is that the 1296MHz Tonnas are very poor at 1250MHz, which is why they sell a special 1250MHz version. I would suggest that you have a look at German Wimo beams. I use the small 28 ele version that works well at both ends of the band.
73 Shaun.

David.

How old is the 35element Tonna?. They used to do one 35ele which could be assembled to be for ATV or SSB use. Now they seem to offer two models. I have a new but old 35 element Tonna that came with a couple of elements of different lengths for fitting if it was to be used in the lower part of the band and you also had to mount I think the first director is a slightly different position on the boom.

From my experience using the 23 element Tonna on 23cm I wouldnt worry too much about it being a little off frequency. my 23 and 35 Tonnas are set for the SSB CW section of the band and the 23 ele works very well at 1316mhz for repeater outputs and 1249 inputs. If you use a one specified for the lower part of the band its performance will be more out of spec at the top end of the band. Guess its the free one against the Wimo that these days are getting rather expensive.

Hope this helps

73 de Denis G3UVR

Thanks for the thought Dennis. I've replied to my friend for more details but expect it's a newer higher band portion aerial.
As my expenditure on Minitiouner receiver and Portsdown transmitter is telling - everything to source and build for DATV to get started- making a beam and bandpass filter similar to those on GM8OTI's homebrew pages is appealing!
73
David M0YDH

David.

I don't know when Tonna started offering two different models to cover the band rather than just one containing enough parts to be able to assemble it for ATV or SSB use. I think it was a good few years ago.

Good luck with it all anyway.

73 de Denis G3UVR

I have a 55 element Tonna for 23cms ATV . Its gave great service for around 15 years and not used at all for the last 10 years , just stored.
So, its about 35 years old.
I decided to get going again last year and try and get some big beams up for 2m , 70cms and 23cms
I had a few broken plastic element risers so tried to get hold of some replacements ( 2016 )
I did contact most of the UK aerial suppliers and one said , they would have a look for some in their stockroom and would contact me if they found any.

After a few weeks of not hearing from them, I did an internet search and found Tonna in France so sent them an email.
They responded with " please send email in French "
I did a google translate and copy paste into an email telling them I had 3 plastic element holders broken.
By coincidence , during these email swaps , the UK supplier who was "looking" for some for me , phoned me to say they had some.
An order was placed with them straight away ( not cheap ) for 6 ( so I had some spare ones ) and they arrived a few days later.

About 1 week after that , Tonna France sent me another email ( In French ) so , Google translate again for me.
They were asking for my address , which I duly sent by email.
About 1 week later they sent me FREE a bag of 8 Element clips ( not even a postage charge ).

Well what can I say ?

That Tonna is going up soon on a refurbed rotator together with other beams.

Might I add here , I also have on the Chimney, another Rotator , it had not turned for 10 years with a Severnside 23cm Yagi on it.
Its been up for 25 years.
In 2016 I worked ATV Analogue several stations on it including Rob M0DTS at 110 km away / both ways.

Good luck with your Tonna ..look out for a Severnside too ( its very underrated beam )

Ken G8VDP