AB7CQ & N7RPT

email: ab7cq@ebidpal.com

Tombstone, AZ 85638

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Antenna Contruction Projects

If you are interested in building any of the antennas I include on this page, drop me an email and I will email the designs to you. They're all pretty self-explanatory. You can also use a screen capture utility to simply copy the image. Some of the antenna designs included on this page are obtained from other sources and some are my own designs, especially the VHF & UHF beam antenna designs.

I'll add more antennas as time permits, the two antennas shown are very popular for VHF work and will get you started building your own antennas, and they will save you a lot of money over commercially built antennas. Today, even a 2 meter 4 or 5 element beam costs around $80 .00 - $129.00, a simple Cushcraft 3 element beam is $69.95, dual band beams are even more expensive, and most of them are absolute crap out of the box requiring modifications so get them to play right. Quite often I 've found that the gamma matches were dimensionally incorrect, that the phasing harneses were either shorted or open, and the dimensional characteristics were just plain wrong, this is why hams are compaining that they can't achieve a decent SWR, or that the antenna won't play at all. Last of all, crimp on connectors are CRAP, STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, DO NOT SCREW ON THE ANTENNA TO YOUR RADIO UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED IT FOR SWR, OPENS, OR SHORTS - FAILURE TO DO SO MAY WELL TOAST YOUR RADIO'S FINALS AND YOU'LL WIND SERIOUSLY DAMAGING YOUR RADIO - THIS WARNING APPLIES TO BOTH COMMERICALLY OR HOME BREW ANTENNAS, whether an HT, mobile, or base antenna. Don't trust the antenna just because you purchased it from a dealer and it's new, I've seen a lot of defective commercally made antennas over my 37 years as a Ham.

J-Pole Antennas

The CopperJ-Pole design shown below is a great design, I designed one simliar to the this with a SWR adjustment screw, without the need for a Balun, it played fantastic with a 1.1.1 to 1.2.1 SWR across the entire 2 meter band from 144.00 to 148.00 Mhz. The purpose of the Balun is to keep RF currents off the transmission line, you can build it either way. You can make a simple home made coax Balun which can be easily constructed, you can save yourself $20.00

VHF Beam Antennas Designed By AB7CQ

This is a pretty easy antenna to build, if you examine the material list, most of the materials can be obtained from ACE Hardware in Sierra Vista, Home Depot, or Lowe's. Ace Hardware has racks throughout the their store and also in the back room. Ask one of the clerks for help, Ace Hardware hires knowledgable personnel, unlike Home Depot or Lowe's that can find the door to the bathroom.

I chose to place this design on the sight because it's a light weight antenna easy to handle when installing on a mast, whether on a tower, a roof tripod, or a portable environment with nothing more than a piece of masting strapped to just about anything.

Note: The term tapered elements refers to the size of the element from reflector (R1) to the last element (DR3), is doesn't mean that the aluminum tubing or rod  is tapered.

Potable Ground Plane Antenna

Here's an old standby portable ground plane antenna that can be used for 2 meters, 220, or 440.

These antennas are simple to make and are a basic 1/4 wave ground plane that only requires an SO-239 connector and some #10 solid copper wire, which can be hung with some light rope, you attach a normal 50 Ohm feed line with a PL-259 that screws onto the SO-239. It only takes a few dollars to make and some 50 ohm coax. I made a lot of these over the years, you can also make one with a simple right angle bracket as permanent base station antenna. I’ve even made some with simple coat hanger wire. They’re easy to tune and cover the entire 2 meter band between 144.000 to 148.000 Mhz as well as 220 and 440 Mhz band.

The first antenna I ever made was this antenna and used it as base station antenna until I could afford something more elaborate.

Here’s a basic image of one, the 4 radials are fastened with nuts and screws and can be loosened and removed for transport, takes about five minutes to set up and your on the air. The vertical element and the four radials are no more than 19-5/8” long for two meters. The radials  don’ t have to bend down at a 45 degree angle, it will work fine if they are horizontal. Make a small loop at the top of the vertical element, this is where you can attached a rope and insulator, just throw the rope over the limb and hoist the antenna up. If you have any questions just ask. This antenna is as simple as they get.

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