Tag Archives: 2m

I recently built a 2m groundplane antenna to be installed in my attic.  Building an antenna is one thing, but getting it into the attic is another.

2013-03-22 12.44.49

This is the lower mounting. Since this is in an attic, there is no need to be overly-worried about strength. There is no wind in the attic!

 

2013-03-22 12.44.25

This is the slot that I used to be able to tighten the mast (which is just 3/4″ PVC) to the antenna connector.

 

2013-03-22 12.44.42

Another view of the slot in the mast. Needless to say, this was the one I did SECOND, after I got a little more comfortable with the wannabee-Dremel router attachment.

 

2013-03-22 12.44.00

Side note, after you take a rotary tool with a router blade to a piece of PVC pipe, you will have at least a million of these little shards everywhere.

2013-03-22 12.45.05

This is a detail of the coax hole. I drilled an initial 3/8″ hole, and then used a 5/16″ bit to finish the angle.

2013-03-22 12.45.10

And this is the coax hole with coax going through it.

2013-03-22 13.00.58

This is the finished mount. I used a hose clamp around the collar to hold the antenna mount to the PL-259 attached to the antenna’s SO-239.

 


Category: Equipment

As part of my attic antenna plans, I built a 2m groundplane antenna. This will ultimately be for an iGate/packet station/digipeater (maybe).  I did this with some fairly simple construction out of coat hangers.

2013-02-16 15.18.46

The first thing I did was make sure the hanger pieces weren’t aluminum.  I don’t have any aluminum solder, and I don’t plan to get any.

2013-02-16 15.35.30

 

The second thing I did was solder lugs on the ends of the radials.  This was, of course, after sanding the ends and brushing flux on them.  This was also after taking a small blowtorch to the coating on some of the hangers.

2013-02-16 15.54.06

Next, I tapped the screw holes in the PL-259 chassis connector.  Once I did that, I attached the radials and soldered the middle.

2013-02-23 10.20.25

 

Taking pictures of antennas is not easy!

The SWR at the high end of the 2m band is less than 1.2:1, the low end (around 144.39) is closer to 1.5:1.  Both within the acceptable limit (for my radio) of 2:1.

-73-

 

 


Category: Equipment

This is the new server