CAvoyager1960
Newbie
I made a rotatable horizontal dipole antenna (from an old 1966 version of the ARRL antenna handbook) I'll be honest... it was for SSB CB (11 meters) so I adjusted element lengths from 10 meter design. It worked great! Also, being there is no reflector/director, you only had to rotate it 90 deg. I was studying for my HAM license but discovered SSB CB and never looked back. Now after all these years I am still going to get a license but want to play with CB some more. I posted this here because I am hoping for some technical advice (most CBers just use store bought antennas) At the time, I had a friend who lost their big vertical base station antenna from a strong wind so he gave me what was left of it (plenty of aluminum tubing to play with) The design has a copper coil (air core, spaced winds) that can be tuned for a good match (I got SWR of 1.1/1) I can't afford aluminum tubing but have some old scraps of copper tubing (and some thick solid copper wire for the coil) This is going to be a budget project. The old ARRL antenna book was from the local library but I found the exact same book online. Looking at it, I am trying to remember just how I did this (I'm 64 and my memory is not so good) Some of the measurements don't make sense (neither of the elements are 1/4 wave long) Why bother with such an old design? Because it worked so well. I want to "shoot skip" on SSB. Back then, I got a really good contact from CA to Detroit Michigan (just suing stock radio... no amp) The guy couldn't believe I didn't have a beam. I'll post more details soon (and more questions) I'm using an old Cobra radio with SWR meter (but it's not SSB) Hoping to build/tune/test this while I save up for a new radio.
