Last year for the April UKAC 23cm contest I used a 23 element F9FT. AS the 10W section restricts one to a single Antenna I decided to look at higher gain alternatives, preferably more robust and sunlight stable.
Talking around a few suggested a Wimo Yagis. Looking at their web site the choice came down to a 3m long 44 ele (2344) and a 5m 67ele (2367). I did look at getting the 67 ele for eme but only using part of it for tropo, but the mechanics did not cooperate, so I ordered the 44 ele. The credit card transaction was done via the link they supplied but the transaction was rejected by NatWest. I had to speak to them and authorise payment to Wimo as they thought it was an Eastern European scam account!
The antenna arrived in three days and was VERY well packed, It had to be jemmied out of the package! It assembled easily in under 20 minutes without needing any adjustment (unlike the F9FT 23 ele which needed the boom deburring and the sub-boom holes redrilling in the correct locations) The elements are premounted and it didnt need the 60 minutes to centralise the elements in the plastic holders. German engineering at its best! Mounting it on a pole in the garden the return loss was measured. 25dB was obtained without touching anything. I had been told the match can be adjusted by squeezing the driven element but doing this only made it worse so it was left alone.
When dismantled the yagi fits easily in the Honda jazz so it was taken portable in IO81LS again. It was noticably sharper and had a much better f/b than the Tonna. The portable on Anglesey was almost inuadible off the back of the beam when pointing at JO00 but was a fine signal when the antenna was rotated by 180 degrees
In summary I was most impressed with the Wimo 2344, Pity I did not discover them many years ago!
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