Home Made Antenna

Discussion in 'Survival Communications' started by deMolay, Jan 27, 2019.


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  1. deMolay

    deMolay Monkey+

    Here is an antenna idea I thought pretty cool. The wife and I have a couple of radio's but are not HAM operators. Only intent is to listen. What do you folks think of this idea? I thought it was pretty outside the box and maybe a good idea for a quick and dirty antenna and very portable.
     
    as1mov, Oltymer, T. Riley and 3 others like this.
  2. Oltymer

    Oltymer Monkey++

    Yeah, definitely a great idea, keeps the wire stowed out of the way. I also just use mine for just listening on a small AM - SW set. I carry about 30' of #20 magnet wire in a baggie, keeps it untangled and stowed away. Tie a stick to one end and toss it over a tree limb, then wrap 6 turns around the exterior of my radio parallel to the internal loopstick antenna for AM, or wrapped around the antenna for SW. Leave a few feet to run to a metal tent stake, nail, or knife stuck in the ground for the antenna ground, completing the circuit. This may overload some SW radios, not mine, but will about double reception on AM.
    FM? Your kidding me, right?
     
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  3. Bandit99

    Bandit99 Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

    Cool idea! I will definitely be making me one of those to play with...Thanks!
     
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  4. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Why kidding? most portable radios with FM capability will have greatly improved reception with additional wire attached to the pull out antenna. No separate ground needed, either.
     
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  5. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Nine idea... Not the first one with that idea... Back when I first started traveling in Alaska, I carried a Spooled Dipole Wire Antenna that had twin geared Spools, and was measured of in Mhz from 1.7 Mhz to 30 Mhz... It had a built-in Balun and had 100 ft of RG58au Coax... We used it to connect the HF Radios, as a temporary Antenna, while we assembled the twin 50Ft Towers and erected them with Guys, and Anchors, and strung the Fixed Dipole Antennas between the Towers.. These were US Public Health Service Native Health Radio Stations, that we were installing... One in EVERY Bush Village at the Clinic, or School, if that was where the Clinic was located... Radios were Northern N550s, 150Watts and on Alaska Public and Private Fixed Frequencies, as well as a couple of Federal Health and State School Frequencies... The Base Stations were at each regional Hospital which had a N550 Radio with N542 KiloWatt Amplifiers... Teaching the Docs how to run a Radio Schedules, was trying to say the least...
     
  6. Oltymer

    Oltymer Monkey++

    You are correct, this will increase range and reception of FM. I didn't mean to bash FM, but it is basically line of sight transmission, and unless there is ducting or other undependable skip in play, range is limited as compared to AM. At night I can tune AM to pick up Toronto and Quebec Canada, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Tulsa, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Caribbean stations, and Mexico City. When your out in the boonies AM is your friend for staying in touch with what's happening on the outside. A bit of wire added as an antenna will pull in many more.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2019
  7. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Rollup portable dipoles are a staple of Ham Field days. For portable listening on emergency radios, those spooled antenna extenders in the OP will do well enough if the built in antennas are not quite enough.
     
  8. deMolay

    deMolay Monkey+

    Thanks for all the good feedback. Would they boost cb? we have cb in our vehicles and our suv is set up for HF, that is what I was thinking of building one for the hf. But have learned it might be good for other bands as well.
     
    Bandit99 likes this.
  9. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    Any additional wire will help reception to one or another degree. Any additional wire is apt to fry your xceiver finals if you transmit on it, and let the magic smoke out. DON"T LET THE MAGIC SMOKE OUT!! Said another way, don't add wire to the antenna on your cb units or any transmitter without having a good handle on what you are doing. You don't. Yet..
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2019
    deMolay and techsar like this.
  10. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Well, before you get go’ en on about Antenna Technology, lets get some commom Terms, understood...
    CB. 27Mhz
    HF 3.0 to 30 MHz
    MF 300 Khz to 3.0 Mhz
    LF. 30 Khz to 300 Khz

    when you say your SUV has HF Capability, What does that Mean?
    and it is true enough, it is very easy to let the Majic Smoke out of a CB Radio, transmitting into anything but a Tuned CB Antenna... You DO NOT want to let the Magic Smoke out of the Radio...
     
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  11. deMolay

    deMolay Monkey+

    We have an old Kenwood ts940s that we inherited, the MIL was a Ham. We have a 2 meter ic2200h which can be installed in the suv when needed, and a couple of cb's. We are not licensed yet, but are learning and listening. Obviously we can not transmit on the Kenwood or the 2 meter because we are not licensed yet? I asked about the antenna because I am learning.
     
  12. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    MOST happy you are learning, feel free to ask questions. We have some talented ham members, and between them all, there's not lot of missing radio scoop. That said, if you are serious about getting your ticket, there is a LOT of "how to" on the web, starting with -
    ARRL | Licensing, Education & Training | Getting on the Air
    The ARRL site is NOT going to spoon feed knowledge, but it's there for the digging. Even better, find a local ham club, go to meetings, and pick brains.

    In the meantime, install one of the cbs (or both). There used to be removable mounts that would allow radio removal if needed to conceal in sketchy areas. You'll likely get tired of the less than useless yammer, but if you need to reach out, it'll be there. REMEMBER please, that radios can be as distracting as phones.
     
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  13. William Warren

    William Warren Monkey+++

    I've seen those from time to time at hamfests, and maybe you can clear up something for me. Does the spooled wire act as an inductor and shorten the antenna length at higher frequencies?

    William Warren
     
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  14. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    o, the Balun connects to the Wire on a Slider just before it leaves the shell, so the Inductor of the Spools are on the other end of the Antenna Wire... and UnGrounded
     
    deMolay likes this.
  15. It is really unlikely that these antennas would end up solenoid wound but there are still reactances to deal with, inductive or capacitive, if you tried to use them for transmitting. You would be better served to build dedicated transmitting antennas. Don't want to run a smoke test. Japs had a wind up antenna they used during the war and SteppIR sells something that works on similar idea, but I think it is a mast mounted beam.
     
    Merkun likes this.
  16. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    The Reel Antennas are designed to be “Tempoary” in nature, where you setup for a Night or just a few days, and then break them down and move to a different location... That is how we used them... String them up when first on Site... Then once the Permenant Antennas we up, strung between the Towers, and connected, broken down, and packed in the Traveling Gear...
     
  17. Tevin

    Tevin Monkey+++

    I am curious about this question too. The spooled wire left inside the reel must have unwanted effects on the function of the antenna.

    His radio "go box" in the video has a maximum output of 10 watts, so he seems to contradict his own "wimpy QRP" argument.

    The guy goes out of his way to diss the "wimpy QRP" FT-817 and says to use an 857 because it will do 100 watts and you can always turn the power down if you want to run QRP. The problem with that theory is 1) If you run QRP with an 857 you're lugging along a radio that's a lot bigger and heavier than it needs to be, and 2) if you run full 100 watt power then you'll need to also lug along some way to generate enough juice to push it. Either way, it's a flawed concept.

    None of this has anything to do with the merits of the antenna, but I did watch the antenna video as well as the video on the go box. His conflicting statements and glossing over the numerous drawbacks of using an 857 for carry-portable at any power level really jumped out at me.
     
  18. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    I lost the web half way thru the vid, so didn't see how he determined his marks. Betcha there was an analyzer involved, and probably a tuner to take care of any stray inductance. I don't know enough about either the 817 or the 857 to know if the onboard tuners have a wide enough range to use wihout a bit of tweaking before hooking up.
    He bought those spools, maybe these
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06WVRV53Y/?tag=survivalmonke-20.
    Maybe handy, but winding the wire on any handy stick will do as well, just a bit less elegant. (Price is right, tho'.)
     
  19. Tevin

    Tevin Monkey+++

    Neither the 817 nor the 857 have on board tuners but they do have on board SWR meters. That would make spooling the wire out to just the right spot all the more critical. There would be a lot of tweaking/trial & error every time you change frequency by more than a few KC.

    Having an antenna analyzer would be mighty handy, although needing a $300-plus analyzer to use an inexpensive antenna kind of negates the "inexpensive" aspect of the project.

    I'm still hoping someone can address what effect the unspooled wire has on antenna performance.
     
  20. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    I bet he just did a quick calculation on 1/4 Wavelength, and got out a Measuring Tape... Then let the Rigs AutoTuner deal with the small reactance issues... And I bet there is a Balun under the Aluminum Plate inside the Pelican Case.... Also NOTE: The amazon ClothsLine thing has Nylon String on it’s spool, and that would need to be. replaced with Wire....
     
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