bigstick antenna

[shamil]

A friend is trying to find plans on a "bigstick" vertical cb antenna he use
to fabricate, but is having no luck.

He describes it a being two pieces of aluminum pole joined in the middle by
a short length of pvc pipe. To each section of aluminum pole he had a wire lead attached.

Anyone ever heard of this design? Any idea what length each of the poles
should be? Better yet, might you have the plans?

 

[gewecke]

A friend is trying to find plans on a "bigstick" vertical cb antenna he use
to fabricate, but is having no luck.

He describes it a being two pieces of aluminum pole joined in the middle by
a short length of pvc pipe. To each section of aluminum pole he had a wire lead attached.

Anyone ever heard of this design? Any idea what length each of the poles
should be? Better yet, might you have the plans?

The antenna was made by the shakespeare antenna company but there are lots of different antenna designs out there so take your pick.

73,
n9zas

 

[mmckenna]

Sounds like a dipole.

Each side would be quarter wave, or about 108 inches each on the CB band.

Feed point impedance would be something other than 50 ohms, what your radio is looking for, and if feeding it with coax, what your system would be set up for.
Been a while since I played with dipoles, and someone might need to correct me, but I think the feed point impedance of a dipole is around 300 or 400 ohms, so you will need to install a balun (BALanced to UNbalanced) to connect your coax to the antenna. The coax (unbalanced) will feed in on one end, and the two connections on the balanced side will connect to the two sides of the antenna.

 

[W2NJS]

The feedpoint impedance of a dipole is about 75 ohms. You could build the antenna with the elements each around 105 inches long and feed it with 75-ohm coaxial cable, usually a TV variety like RG-59. A balun ("balanced to unbalanced") transformer will improve the antenna's performance and it gets installed at the center of the antenna.

 

[sdeeter19555]

A friend is trying to find plans on a "bigstick" vertical cb antenna he use
to fabricate, but is having no luck.

He describes it a being two pieces of aluminum pole joined in the middle by
a short length of pvc pipe. To each section of aluminum pole he had a wire lead attached.

Anyone ever heard of this design? Any idea what length each of the poles
should be? Better yet, might you have the plans?

A Bigstick is a name of a manufactured antenna (as noted, sold by Shakespear), what you describe is a typical homebrew dipole.

 

[RevGary]

The Shakespear "Big Stick" (registered trademark) antenna series includes base, mobile, and marine application antennas. The antennas are all made with mainly fiberglass construction and are some of the most heavy duty antennas available. I just installed a Shakespear "Super Big Stick" 5/8 wave three section 21 fool high antenna for my FCC licensed low band VHF frequency. Using a 25 watt transmitter into this antenna, we are able to reach our 25 watt mobiles 45 miles away.

Internet source photo:

The first post in this thread must be referring to a home brew, as spoken of in several of the posts, because Shakespear never made one as described.

However, I do remember seeing a brief discussion about something similar at eham.com awhile back. It can be used horizontally or vertically and while the one in the following article is a factory antenna, there are HF copies of it from home brew sources.

CLICK>>> Buddipole Portable Dipole/Vertical Product Reviews
`
`
`

 

[Rt169Radio]

Where did you get a Shakespeare "Big Stick" antenna? They were discontinued as far as I know?

 

[gewecke]

The "original" Shakespeare big stick was 18' in length and only 2 sections also.
I had one 20+ years ago.

73,
n9zas

 

[hhrj]

The "original" Shakespeare big stick was 18' in length and only 2 sections also.
I had one 20+ years ago.

73,
n9zas

I bought one back in 1976 and had it atop two 10' sections of tv antenna mast. It worked rather well and I wouldn't mind having another one.
Can't remember what I did with first one or the radio...

 

[gewecke]

I bought one back in 1976 and had it atop two 10' sections of tv antenna mast. It worked rather well and I wouldn't mind having another one.
Can't remember what I did with first one or the radio...

I used mine for low band scanner listening until lightning fell in love with it!
It worked great up until then.

73,
n9zas

 

[RevGary]

Where did you get a Shakespeare "Big Stick" antenna? They were discontinued as far as I know?

I didn't say that I just bought it, I said that I just installed it. It has been in the original box in my garage from 2002 when I purchased it from the local dealer. I have been using an A-99 on my licensed low band VHF frequency, but it was starting to shed some fiberglass, so I put the Shakespear three section Super Big Stick 5/8 wave up in it's place. I'm going to sand down the A-99, apply flexible clear coat to it to stabalize the fiberglass (electronically neutral spray) and put it in storage as a spare or as a quick temporary base while on Red Cross disaster responses for quick setup and initial communications until the portable UHF repeater can be set up.

 

[gewecke]

I didn't say that I just bought it, I said that I just installed it. It has been in the original box in my garage from 2002 when I purchased it from the local dealer. I have been using an A-99 on my licensed low band VHF frequency, but it was starting to shed some fiberglass, so I put the Shakespear three section Super Big Stick 5/8 wave up in it's place. I'm going to sand down the A-99, apply flexible clear coat to it to stabalize the fiberglass (electronically neutral spray) and put it in storage as a spare or as a quick temporary base while on Red Cross disaster responses for quick setup and initial communications until the portable UHF repeater can be set up.

Do you use that antenna on 47.420 mhz. ?


73,
n9zas

 

[RevGary]

Do you use that antenna on 47.420 mhz. ?


73,
n9zas

No - We use it on our own licensed low band frequency. We are on a frequency a bit lower than what the Red Cross themselves use. As a Christian Pastor, I have a group of Chaplains available who respond with the American Red Cross as volunteers, but their ARC radio system is over taxed in times of regional disasters, so we bring our own low band, high band and UHF systems with us for our own group. However, we usually have one of our group members, with a temporary UHF base, stationed at the closest Red Cross Comm Center for liaison purposes back to our command post. We NEVER rely on cell phones in disaster areas because they are completely unreliable due to tower damage and other post disaster issues generally with the cell tower infrastructure.