The Electronics Universe
Over The Air => Antennas and Towers => Topic started by: KC8TCQ on September 06, 2008, 08:43:11 PM
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Having only a 10m antenna up, I decided to do some experimenting for antennas for HF. I didn\'t have any parts to make a typical dipole. What I did have was an old POS 50 ft extention cord with the ends cut off. I stripped the orange jacket off, seperated the 3 conductors, spliced two of them together giving me 100 ft of wire. One end is connected to my tuner which is capable of tuning a random length wire, from there it goes out the window of my second floor shackm and slopes down to the back yard.
At the moment it is only in a temp setup until I have time to work out something better. But I can\'t complain about it\'s performance.
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any wire is an antenna. good for you for trying.. and the only shortcoming of POS wire is it tends to stretch with time and heat.
you can make a dipole by using any insulator in the center.
cut up old computer firbeglass cases, throw away printer covers etc.
plastic windows in printers.
buy a sheet of 1/4 inch plexy at ACE or home depot.
or 1/8 inch plexy and hot glue two or three pieces together.
a good trick is to use several \'black\' zip ties to hold a short piece of
1/8 in rubber auto hose to the center insulator and tape to the lead as a strain relief...
other wise the lead will break on one side and antenna acts funny and a dipole cant be checked with an ohm meter like a closed loop beam can sometimes.
use pulleys on the ends so you can raise and lower two dozen times to get it right.
have fun.