I have used the same Arrow Antenna for several years now…but it has evolved over time!
The first thing I did was to add the “Hacksaw Handle” mod suggested by K6LCS. You can see the black handle below. Then, I added the HT tray which helped the balance while holding.
http://www.k6lcs.com/k6lcs/Photos/Pages/Arrow_Mod.html
About 2011
This particular shot shows a single Icom IC-W32a which was full duplex capable. I never did really well with this arrangement and after only making perhaps 5 QSOs I put working satellites on the back burner. I had a rather complex wiring arrangement in order to record the audio.
2018
Early in 2018 I finally figured out that I had some kind of issue with the split boom. I went to Home Depot, got some square stock aluminum and replaced the existing split boom with a one-piece boom. All of a sudden I’m making sat contacts like crazy! I can’t explain it…obviously something with the internal copper piece not making good contact (speculation on my part.)
I made the boom longer on the “handle” end and glued a piece of PVC endcap to allow for resting the antenna against my hip and rotating as needed for polarization/tumble. You can also see that I added a vertical “handle” just behind the elements. Doing so allows me to hold the antenna similar to a police “billy club”. This was a vast improvement over the hacksaw handle which still put strain on my wrist, even though that *was* better (in my opinion) than the stock Arrow handle.
I bolted on a tray to hold the receive HT and my audio recorder. Yes, it adds a bit of weight but now being able to hold it with the vertical PVC section offset that pretty well.
