I can't remember where I found this link http://wireless.gumph.org/articles/homemadeomni.html to this project. But with a rainy day yesterday and having all the materials around I set up the work bench and built this antenna tuned for 506MHz. The only differences were to recalculate for 506MHz and for using 9913 cable.
Only trouble I had during the build was the 9913 cable. It has an aluminum sheild and its a little hard to solder to but if you tin it before you solder the sections together it works ok. To do it again I would get coax with a cooper sheild. It took me about 4 hours total to build it though I could do it much faster now that I've worked the bugs out of the assembly.
I tested it in my attic last night after finishing it and it worked very well from there. I put it up on the roof today. Its about 40-45ft high now and it works execellent. I have a Comet GP-6 up there also at about 55ft and the homebrewed antenna works equal or better on most distant repeaters I compared in the 500MHz range. I know the Comet is tuned for 440MHz but it receives quite well at 500MHz and that's all I really use it for.
I was wondering if anyone would know how to re-arange this design to make it a dual bander for VHF hi/UHF or 500/860MHz would be neat. Also was wondering if this design could be used to make a 1/4 antenna for lower frequencies, so it's not so tall. Not sure how to re-calculate using the formula for the design. Also was curoius about the bandwidth of this design using 9913 cable for the elements.
Sorry for no pics. I got half way done the thing before I thought of it and the batteries were dead in one camera and the other one was MIA somewhere??? The assembly would look just like the project on the web page except longer sections. I stuffed it into a 9ft section of 3/4" white PVC pipe with a cap on the top. I'll get a pic of it up on its mast tomorrow. It looks nice up there.
Only trouble I had during the build was the 9913 cable. It has an aluminum sheild and its a little hard to solder to but if you tin it before you solder the sections together it works ok. To do it again I would get coax with a cooper sheild. It took me about 4 hours total to build it though I could do it much faster now that I've worked the bugs out of the assembly.
I tested it in my attic last night after finishing it and it worked very well from there. I put it up on the roof today. Its about 40-45ft high now and it works execellent. I have a Comet GP-6 up there also at about 55ft and the homebrewed antenna works equal or better on most distant repeaters I compared in the 500MHz range. I know the Comet is tuned for 440MHz but it receives quite well at 500MHz and that's all I really use it for.
I was wondering if anyone would know how to re-arange this design to make it a dual bander for VHF hi/UHF or 500/860MHz would be neat. Also was wondering if this design could be used to make a 1/4 antenna for lower frequencies, so it's not so tall. Not sure how to re-calculate using the formula for the design. Also was curoius about the bandwidth of this design using 9913 cable for the elements.
Sorry for no pics. I got half way done the thing before I thought of it and the batteries were dead in one camera and the other one was MIA somewhere??? The assembly would look just like the project on the web page except longer sections. I stuffed it into a 9ft section of 3/4" white PVC pipe with a cap on the top. I'll get a pic of it up on its mast tomorrow. It looks nice up there.
