WQ9M Antennas
This is a picture of the first antenna that I made from scratch. It is designed to work at 160 MHz This is for communication with mobile units in the 2 meter business band.
(Click on any of the pictures for a larger image.)
The coax is connected directly to the antenna by stainless steel hose clamps and has an in-line male
BNC connector at the other end.
My second Jpole is intended for use in the 2 meter ham band (144 MHz). Along with the length
differences of the antenna elements I tried a different method of connecting the feedline to the
antenna.
The connections are made with two copper pipe hangers and a piece of Lexan. A female BNC is also
mounted in the Lexan as the attachment point. In this antenna the RF choke coil is between the BNC
connector and the pipe hangers.
After making two functioning antennas out of scrap plumbing supplies, I came up with a theory. You can
make an antenna out of almost anything that conducts electricity. Just to prove my new theory, I built a
Moxon directional antenna for the ham 2 meter band. The Moxon was invented by
Les Moxon, G6XN, SK.
(Click
here
to see the web site I got the information about the Moxon antenna from.)
I made the antenna out of some scrap 10 ga solid core wire, a piece of cardboard and some Scotch tape!
The original design specified using 1/2" PVC pipe to support the elements. I decided to prototype it on
the structurally significant copy paper box seen in the picture prior to cutting up the PVC.
To my amazement it is working great!
Here is a close up of the coax connection to the antenna elements.
This is the finished antenna on the 1/2 inch PVC frame. Since this will be an indoor antenna I decided not to bother gluing the joints of the PVC. It is sturdy enough with the joints force fit. The antenna element was removed from the cardboard and mounted on the PVC frame.
Note the tee used at the bottom right. You might think that is for mounting the antenna but you would be wrong. I put a tee there because I ran out of elbows. (I really did make this using only parts that I had on hand!)
Here is a close up of the coax connection to the antenna elements.
What really bothers me is that the SWR was slightly better when it was mounted on the cardboard!
I built this antenna to access the Schaumburg Amateur Radio Club's 2 meter repeater from the first floor of my house. I do not get very good reception inside the house because of the aluminum siding. The antenna is mounted in the kitchen window facing east. This allows me to access the repeater with a hand held when I am in the kitchen or living room. The repeater receive site is a little over 8 miles (13.3 km) away at a bearing of 80 degrees. With the antenna I am able to access the repeater using low power on my HT.