Cheap POS longwire
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. |
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. |
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