Antenna Madness

Bob J

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Thought it would be worth a thread to talk about your antenna experiences..... Am currently on 2m but am hoping to move up to HF as soon as my budget can afford it so would appreciate any insight into this confusing (for me anyway) area of the hobby.....[wink]

73's

Bob J
KB1TRE
 
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Good topic.

For 2meter I've used:
MFJ-1721 -
20" magmount - a servicable, but not great antenna. Cable is lossy and not very efficient, but served a particular need: Inexpensive and allowed me to get my truck in and out of the garage without looking like "that radio guy".
Diamond NR770 - this is what is on the truck now. Much improved performance over the 20" whip.
Diamond X500 - 17' tall base antenna mounted on top of an 20' mast. Great antenna for the house.

For HF I have:
G5RV - 102' long strung up at 30' at the ends, maybe 20' in the middle - I want to get it higher. I can tune 80-10m (probably 160 too, but I haven't tried) with my MFJ 941E manual tuner. I'm presently feeding this with a 100' coax, but that will change after I move my shack out of the basement. There's a reason this is a popular antenna. Works great.
Off center fed dipole or Windom - I built this myself. It is coax fed to a 4:1 current balun. Over all length is about 150' as I recall. In theory it can be resonant on almost all the bands. Mine is not cut properly to do that but is resonant on 80 and 40 (i'm sure it could use some tweaking) without a tuner.
 
I'm just getting started and only have 2M/440

Car: Hustler 2M/44 mag mount. Works quite nice. I had it on a metal table in my house and could hit repeaters 20 miles away.

House: I now have one of Ed Fong's $22 2M/440 j-poles on my house:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dual-Band-VHF/U...ItemQQimsxZ20100228?IMSfp=TL100228131002r3069

It is made of twin-lead and comes rolled up in an envelope. All you do is get 5' of PVC pipe, slide it in and mount it to the roof. From Topsfield I can hit Worcester (52miles). He also has a similar one tuned for no PVC pipe for hanging from a tree while camping. On my HT the Gloucester repeater goes from S4 to S9.

Fong is a UC Berkeley PhD and the antenna has been written up several times including in QST. Plans are published, but for $22 + $2 shipping, I don't think I could make 1 that cheap.
 
For HF work get a Buddipole! Great portable 80m-6m antenna that mounts on a tripod. Set it on the back deck and work the world. Take it down and put it away when done.
 
For HF I have a G5RV Max. It's the 204' version. It's about 50' above the ground. Tunes from 160 to 10 and seems to do a great job.
I've been working Europe, South America etc with good signal reports.

ETA I'm running 100 watts.
 
Never had much luck with with the g5rv myself. I am using a 3 element tribander for 10-15-20 and a 1/4 wave vertical for 40m. I wish I had the space for a full size monbander. Used to run legal limit but currently do not have any space for my amp. Dipoles are easy to build and tune. Every multi band antenna is a comprise imo. LC matching circuits lead to poor patterns and some lose.
 
I find the trusty old dipole to be the best bang for the buck.

If you do a web search on how to make a HF dipole you will get a million hits or more. All you need is some very cheap ladder line and some antenna wire and your off to the races. You will need a book and a simple SWR meter so you will know how to tune the antenna. I found building my own antennas very fun and satisfying.

go here for all you'll ever need to build any antenna-- http://www.dxengineering.com/
 
When you say "antenna wire" what are you referring to? I use 14gauge THHN - it's cheap and readily available.

Dedicated antenna wire has a weather resistant coating on it giving it a 10 year life span. Bare copper wire on the east coast anywhere near street salt will be on the ground in 2 years because of the corrosion. The antenna wire is only about 4 to 5 cents more a foot. Worth it if you've found a design you like and want it to stay up for a while.

There is a local NH company that is a dealer for the link I gave that sells at a discount if anyone really wants some good wire I'll research the link. My computer crashed and I lost all my ham stuff.
 
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OK, I thought this would be easier, but I can't seem to find a cheap source of 300 ohm ladder line (aka twin lead). Radio Shack has it, but only in 100' rolls. I only need around 4 feet. You-Do-It only sells it in 300' or 500' spools, and the only online source with a decent price I've found is in the UK. I've found some other places online, but for $18 I can get the 100' roll from Radio Shack, so spending $20 + shipping for 50' online doesn't make any sense.
Anyone know of a good, CHEAP place to buy less than 50' of 300 ohm ladder line?
 
OK, I thought this would be easier, but I can't seem to find a cheap source of 300 ohm ladder line (aka twin lead). Radio Shack has it, but only in 100' rolls. I only need around 4 feet. You-Do-It only sells it in 300' or 500' spools, and the only online source with a decent price I've found is in the UK. I've found some other places online, but for $18 I can get the 100' roll from Radio Shack, so spending $20 + shipping for 50' online doesn't make any sense.
Anyone know of a good, CHEAP place to buy less than 50' of 300 ohm ladder line?

http://www.thewireman.com/antennap.html#balanced -- bottom of the page.

$.38/foot. I'll check if I have a 4 foot section for you.
 
I have a question about antennas. I came across this ad. What do you guys make of this one?

Two Antenna's. Both ready to go - they are 20-25 feet long. Must take both. One says "Cushcraft" Matching Network 10,12,15,17,30,40 meters. The other is straight with no extra wires coming off it....looks like very tightly woven cable. Hope this helps!
 
The tightly wovewn cable one sounds like a fiberglass antenna, maybe an old station master or something. The other one sounds like a cushcraft 6BTV or at least a piece of one. at 25 feet, it seems a little short for 40 meters. Thats my guess.
 
G5RV if you have the room...a spider is a neat way to go for portable operation...camping, etc. If you want to work anyone on 80, plan on putting out some radials.

73 de N1TWK
 
The tightly wovewn cable one sounds like a fiberglass antenna, maybe an old station master or something. The other one sounds like a cushcraft 6BTV or at least a piece of one. at 25 feet, it seems a little short for 40 meters. Thats my guess.

The picture has MN-7000 on the box at the bottom of the antenna.

3n83k73md5T95P35R0a3a621385f9c58c1b.jpg


3m73p93o25T55P35R7a3aa00bd148c8121b.jpg



I guess are they worth thinking about? I'm trying to think where I'd put a 25 foot antenna where my wife won't freak out. [wink]
 
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I'm trying to think where I'd put a 25 foot antenna where my wife won't freak out. [wink]

Pretty much the same problem I am going to have to work through..... I live in a very residential neighborhood on a 100'x100' lot so anything I put up will have to be pretty discrete.... Am thinking a G5RV might be the ticket as a long strung wire might blend in enough not to upset the neighbors..... Also thinking I can probably get away with the little 2m pvc pipe rig the guy on ebay is selling if I mount it on the back of the house at the peak.... Also like the suggestion of the buddy pole for something that I can carry if I'm camping or away from home..... Much appreciate the discussion guys.....[wink]
 
anything I put up will have to be pretty discrete....
Don't forget urban cammo paint. My $22 PVC antenna is mounted with grey/black roof behind it as viewed from the street. So that's the color I painted it. It's not invisible, but it does not jump out at you.
 
Don't forget urban cammo paint. My $22 PVC antenna is mounted with grey/black roof behind it as viewed from the street. So that's the color I painted it. It's not invisible, but it does not jump out at you.

I didn't think to paint it...I'm not to worried about the neighbors seeing these on the roof. It's the 25 footer that I'm worried about. Here's mine mounted on the peak.

IMG00118.jpg


IMG00117.jpg
 
Don't forget urban cammo paint. My $22 PVC antenna is mounted with grey/black roof behind it as viewed from the street. So that's the color I painted it. It's not invisible, but it does not jump out at you.

I was thinking about painting my j-pole so that it wouldn't be such an eye sore. It's aluminum. Anybody see any issues with that?
 
Awesome idea! (Slaps forehead) Why didn't I think of that.....[wink]

Don't forget urban cammo paint. My $22 PVC antenna is mounted with grey/black roof behind it as viewed from the street. So that's the color I painted it. It's not invisible, but it does not jump out at you.
 
DSC05411.jpg


The other cute thing I did was get a big end cap, cut a hole in it and (all I had was black)RTV it on as a skirt to keep the rain from going down the coax. I also used the black-tar tape to seal the PL-259.
 
I just order a bunch of various wire from thewireman.com. I am quite impressed with their prices, and shipping seemed very fair.

I've now got (actually, they're in the mail), the supplies to make 2 of those Ed Fong dual band J-poles that are always on ebay for around $25 + shipping. My cost for the parts for each; about $5.00. [smile]

For anyone interested in saving a few bucks on their dual band j-pole, here's the instructions to make it:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/0302038.pdf
 
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