My "Homebrew" J-Pole

[ButlerAlerts]

Hello guys!

I have been hearing alot on J-Poles on 2 meters, and thought I'd make one. How far range do you think I could get in a Rural Area with a FT-2900R Yaesu at 75-80 Watts? If I can hit a repeater 9 Miles away on a 5 Watt HT, i sure could hit alot more. Give me any suggestions and comments on how I did. I followed the Calculator and instructions by K4ABT to a 'T"!

 

[LtDoc]

Looks right. Now paint it, saves seeing the copper turn green. Or don't, it's up to you.
What kind of range? Beats me, at least as much as you are getting now with that HT (worst case), and then it just depends on terrain, propagation and how high you can mount it (higher is better). I would expect you will see quite a difference in range.
- 'Doc

 

[ButlerAlerts]

I know copper has more reflective for RF, or however that goes. But paint won't affect the power output?

Antenna would be about 20 feet on a mast, and above roof level if that helps.

Thanks for commenting!

73's

 

[LtDoc]

I think you're talking about 'conductivity', and if so, it doesn't make any practical difference. Gold and silver are more conductive but for normal use it will make no difference in what you hear or your transmitting abilities.
Painting antennas is fairly common for a number of reasons. The layer of paint isn't going to make any difference. It's a very good idea to not paint any insulators if the paint is conductive (contains metal in some form). I've painted (spray cans) several antennas with no difference except in their 'looks'.
- 'Doc

Pink is a very good color to paint antennas! Electrons are mostly male, so when exiting an antenna painted pink tend to want to get away from it before anyone sees them, you know? Those pink antennas also 'attract' male electrons from other antennas. They wanna see what the devil that pink thingy is, and get 'captured' quicker...

 

[Jimru]

Pink is a very good color to paint antennas! Electrons are mostly male, so when exiting an antenna painted pink tend to want to get away from it before anyone sees them, you know? Those pink antennas also 'attract' male electrons from other antennas. They wanna see what the devil that pink thingy is, and get 'captured' quicker...

Your "Pink Antenna Theory" is quite interesting and I hope to see a white, um, I mean pink, paper published on it in one of the April issues of the ham mags next year!

 

[AK9R]

Or just coat it with clear Krylon spray paint. No pigment which might alter the performance of the antenna and you'll retain the copper color.

 

[ButlerAlerts]

I got it all soldered, and put a SO-239 connected to a 20 gauge wire. Do you guys think that 1.) 20 gauge wire is as good as 12 gauge, and 2.) if the shield rod is a little loose, and I use Nylon Kite String to hold it in place, that it will still work as fine? It's either this way or just to buy the J-Pole Arrow makes.

 

[LtDoc]

I think that 20 gauge wire will probably work. I usually use something a bit larger, but mainly because that's what I have on hand.
I'm not sure what you mean by "the shield rod". If kite string will hold it in place, and if the weather doesn't destroy it, and if it works, then why not? It doesn't sound like the best engineering practice in the world, but there are lots of thingys like that.
Should you build or buy? That's up to you. I know that I think it's fun to build antennas and it's very pleasing when they work well (a lot of them haven't too, oh well). There are very few things that can only be done in one way, there are all kinds of variations in design. If it works, it works.
- 'Doc

A few sayings you may be familiar with;
'When the smoke turns white you're doing something right.'
'Put the wet stuff on the red stuff.'
'Cowtail it!'

 

[ButlerAlerts]

I switched to 12 gauge and i dont think it will be coming out anytime soon.

Thanks!

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Pics?

 

[ButlerAlerts]

While im getting the pics uploaded, (The copper is not touching the metal mast besides the "base part") I have a RadioShack CB/High Frequency SWR/Power Meter. Can I use that for VHF, because I know a few people, and one of the comments, said that you can, but I just want to be sure. Also, my first original photo, that pole went to crap because I bought Copper-Red instead of copper blue.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Copper red and copper blue?

 

[ButlerAlerts]

I bought red copper at first, which is the thinest and cheapest. When we soldered it, it went straight through it. Then we got Copper Blue, which has blue stamps on it, which is thicker than copper with red stamps. Copper comes in differnt thickness.

 

[ButlerAlerts]

Here they are!

 

[jeepinjeepin]

I bought red copper at first, which is the thinest and cheapest. When we soldered it, it went straight through it. Then we got Copper Blue, which has blue stamps on it, which is thicker than copper with red stamps. Copper comes in differnt thickness.

Ok, I didn't pick up on the color thing. Yes, copper pipe comes in 4 thicknesses that I know of; K, L, M, and DWV. DWV is super thin and normally only found in larger sizes. K is the thickest, with L and M in the middle. So the color of ink also denotes what type it is?

 

[ButlerAlerts]

Yup. Blue is L, hence L is in Blue is what I was just told last night.

 

[KD0USR]

.... So the color of ink also denotes what type it is?

Yep, the 'label' inked on the copper is different colors for different thickness.

Type "L" and "M" is the most common, and found at most home improvement stores.

ZFD22, what were you using to solder it?

I've done a lot of sweating of copper (was a Pipefitter) and never 'burned through' any.

Unless you were using 'Silver Solder', which requires a lot of heat (and is usually used on the larger diameter pipe) you shouldn't 'burn through',

A small propane torch and 95/5 solder, or 'lead free' solder should work fine on either type L or M.

50/50 solder melts much lower, but is hard to find anymore (since it was 50% lead)


Use flux, and move the heat around the fitting. Keep touching the solder to the joint, until it starts to melt.

Solder will run 'towards the heat', and once it starts melting, you can move the heat away (and back as needed-no need to hold it on the copper full time)

Thinking of trying my hand at a J-pole myself, looks like a fun project!

 

[popnokick]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B350 Safari/8536.25)

I keep reading this thread hoping I'm going to read how the antenna worked for you when you hooked it up. I. e what kind of range improvement you got vs your handheld.
So... HOW WELL DID IT WORK?

 

[LtDoc]

That 'range' thing...
It depends on several things, naturally, but a typical 'J'-pole should be a 'daylight/dark' sort of comparison to the typical 'duck' on an HT. Is there a 'set' sort of "it's this much better"? No, sorry, just too many variables. One way of comparing antennas is by their gain. There are qualifications with that, but keep in mind that a typical 'duck' antenna always has a 'negative' gain in relation to a 1/2 wave antenna, which is what a 'J'-pole is. (Or a 1/4 wave antenna which has a 'negative' gain with a 1/2 wave.)
- 'Doc