Antenna testing.

[bambam4903]

i just made a j pole for my scanner(bct 15). I was wondering if there is a way to test it to see what band its reading. its picking up nashville airport tower and thats about 40 min. from my house. pretty good for home made off the net, i guess .i cant use a swr meter because there is no transmit, right? new to the game. thanks for any help.

 

[Skypilot007]

What frequency did you design it for? It could receive on several bands depending on the design. The web site you found the design on could probably provide some clues as to what is to be expected from the design. Basically the lenths of the wire elements you made determine what band it will receive on best.

 

[blueangel-eric]

a handy tool would be an antenna analyzer but expensive. they run about $400 and hams use them to find all the freqs that have the best SWR's without transmitting a radio.

wish i had one but i seen my friends when he checked some of my antennas before.

Eric Burris

 

[N_Jay]

How can you build an antenna and not know what band it is for?

That would be like hunting and wondering what it was that you shot after the fact!:roll:

 

[bambam4903]

Njay, i know what band it was suppost to be (126.5000). just wanting to check my work. it's like your car. you know it has oil but you still check.

 

[zz0468]

i just made a j pole for my scanner(bct 15). I was wondering if there is a way to test it to see what band its reading. its picking up nashville airport tower and thats about 40 min. from my house. pretty good for home made off the net, i guess .i cant use a swr meter because there is no transmit, right? new to the game. thanks for any help.

There's nothing anyone can do to help here. Let me guess... you have no test equipment, and have no idea how to use it if you did, so... game over. You built an antenna, it seems to work, and that's as good as it gets. =)