VHF High and UHF Antenna out of 1/4" Aluminum Tubing ?

[user786]

Hi all. I just cleared out an old cupboard in my garage and found some EXCELLENT aluminum tubing that I could use for making a ground plane scanner antenna.

I think these were originally the ground plane radials off a 5/8 wave HUGE CB antenna I had bought hears ago.

I have a total of two pieces of tubing about 48" long. It is 1/4" round tubing. Very light and very strong.

I primarily monitor VHF high between 150Mhz and 174Mhz and Air Band between 118Mhz and 132Mhz. I wonder if I can make a good VHF High Groundplane antenna with 1/4 wave radials to listen to all this stuff? I would prefer to tune it for 150Mhz - 174Mhz best coverage though. Should I feed it with RG58 or RG6 cable? I don't have any RG58 at all so I would have to go buy that 50 Ohm cable but I have a huge roll of RG6 from my last satellite installer who left it behind. I think the RG6 is 75 Ohms though. Would there be any probs using the RG6 as it is 75 Ohms? I would be connecting to a Uniden BC246T Handheld.

I also do some listening to some local services in the 460Mhz - 470Mhz range which I wonder if it will work good also on the same VHF High antenna ?

Finally I also listen to a local repeater at 866Mhz but I will probably just stick to my Radio Shack 800Mhz rubber ducky antenna for that as it works really well. will it help to mount my Radio Shack 800Mhz Rubber Duckie outside on the roof and run a cable to the radio? It would be about 20ft of the RG6 or RG58 cable. Or would I get better reception with it on the handheld directly due to feedline loss?

Can anyone help me with measurements to use for my proposed VHF High Groundplane antenna or do you have any other suggestions on what I should make with the tubing?

I saw this Radio Shack Antenna that I guess might work OK if I can get the plan to build it...
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103641

What would all you gurus out there suggest?

Thanks

 

[K9GTJ]

Here is a calculator to tell you ideal lengths for 1/4 wave ground plane antennas.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennagpcalc.html

 

[user786]

Thanks kokomo1 for the link but I always thought that the calculated lengths are dependent on what type of metal you are using and the thickness of the metal...
Am I right or wrong ?
I would use that calculator for example if I was just using maybe some 1/8" copper rod or thin aluminum wire or something but would I also use the ExACT same measurements for 1/2" aluminum hollow tubing ?

Any guidance appreciated...

Also if anyone has any dimensions and plans for making a 1/4 wave groundplane for VHF high out of aluminum tubing I would greatly appreciate it because even if I use the same calculations to cut the rods as kokomo1 gave me from that link, I am still not sure how I am going to structurally put the whole thing together.