ebay dipole antennas, any good?
- Thread starter Gunmetal
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What kind of dipole are you talking about here? A link would be helpful.
N1BHH
Member
You can make one out of speaker wire. You can make one out of just about any kind of wire and have the satisfaction of knowing that you built something. Can we all just forget about buying pre-made unknown, untested products and try to experiment on our own? I sure hope so.
Get the antenna up as high as you can and it will play very well.
Get the antenna up as high as you can and it will play very well.
For the money that guy makes some decent antennas. I purchased the 10 meter one, and hung it in my attic at about 13 ft.. I made contacts all over at 100 watts with good signal reports. The whole red wire thing kinda sucks if you wanted to put it outdoors. I think I read that he can custom make an antenna with different wire, with a bauln, and specific frequency tuned. It's my first dipole so for me it's good. To another operator it may be junk. It works better than I expected to. I hope this helps. Good luck.
Do you think it would talk very far simply mounted on the side of the house?
K
kb0nly
Guest
High and clear as possible is the best when it comes to an inverted V but not all situations are perfect of course. In an attic or between two trees, the house and one tree, whatever it works!
But i have to agree, for the $20 you can build one with next to nothing. For a simple dipole like that all you need is some scraps of plexiglass that can normally be had for free or next to nothing at your local hardware store or lumber yard, one piece for an insulator on each end and one to make a center insulator. Then you just take a piece of coax and strip it back, center to one side, shield to the other. If you take a piece of plex and drill three holes in it, one to hang the center, and the other two for the ends of the elements you got the same thing as him electrically just not as pretty.
I have made quite a few of the ones like he does, all it takes is a short length of PVC, a couple caps, some eye bolts, and a SO-239. There is nothing special inside, just wires to each side.
If you make one or buy one also use enough extra coax to wind it up and make a choke at the feedpoint.
10 Meter Technician Class Dipole - Build a Technician Class Dipole for 10 Meters!
But i have to agree, for the $20 you can build one with next to nothing. For a simple dipole like that all you need is some scraps of plexiglass that can normally be had for free or next to nothing at your local hardware store or lumber yard, one piece for an insulator on each end and one to make a center insulator. Then you just take a piece of coax and strip it back, center to one side, shield to the other. If you take a piece of plex and drill three holes in it, one to hang the center, and the other two for the ends of the elements you got the same thing as him electrically just not as pretty.
I have made quite a few of the ones like he does, all it takes is a short length of PVC, a couple caps, some eye bolts, and a SO-239. There is nothing special inside, just wires to each side.
If you make one or buy one also use enough extra coax to wind it up and make a choke at the feedpoint.
10 Meter Technician Class Dipole - Build a Technician Class Dipole for 10 Meters!
For 10 meters I never really had much luck with a dipole antenna. Perhaps its my location or the fact I can only get it up 35ft in an inverted V configuration, I don't know. I found a used antron 99 CB antenna worked much much better on 10 than anything I could build. I found it for $15.00 on craigs list. Trust me I build mostly all of my own antennas but this particular band alonf with 6 meters I use a verticle antenna. Just works better for me at my location.
It can't hurt to try. This radio thing is all about experimenting. What works well for one may not do squat for another. The bad thing is that 10 is pretty dead now that E season is over. You might be waiting along time for conditions to test it out. If your looking to do local talking the dipole is not a good option. You will do much better on a vertical for local talk.
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