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antennas

fubar

New member
Generally it is better to have a FULL wave antenna.
A half wave is next best
A quarter wave is next
an eighth is next....etc.

That being said, there are a few instances where the antennas may have simbiotic frequencies, like a half wave of 12 meters is 6 meters, some bleeding may occur so you may want to run a fraction of the 12 to keep your neighbors 6 meter from sounding like Dizzy Gillespies Trumpet!
(That is not a good example, just and easy way to explain)
Antennas are a science all in it's own. You may also find that your dipole you meticously made for your house might need to have two feet cut off to use at your cabin. Hills, metal roofs, neighbors houses, mother-in-laws, anything big and hard to move can affect your radio. But don't dismay, you will actually find that part of the fun is tweeking to get out just a little further, of get Indernesier a little clearer.

Good GENERAL rule of thumb with antennas, the bigger the better and the higher the better.
HINT When you make an antenna, make it just a little long and trim it to tune, pretty hard to add to it to tune.
 

snow dog

New member
Who sells a full wave 2 meter antenna ? Then there is the mounting factor ? I don't think I have ever seen anybody using a full wave antenna in a mobile application. But then I may not have been around as much as others.
 

fubar

New member
Dunno who sells one, might try here if you want to search one out...
http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamantm.html
They have a very wide selection.

But, I built my first one, the wife didn't want any antennas up at first. So I took a piece of trim off the garage, in side it I put two strips of copper wire, One leg up, one leg down. (I actually calculated the length required for 146 mz) Where the two almost touched, I soldered the up one to the center conductor of 8/m coax, the one that went down I connected to the shield of the 8/m.
I drilled a hole in the corner of the garage beneath where the trim was. When I put the trim back up, the wire was hidden and the coax went into the corner of the garage about six feet above my cheap radio.
I was on the air!!
Af course now I've got mast and wires and crap hanging all over the outside of the garage and the side of the house and draped inside the shop!!!
 

Snowtrac Nome

member formerly known as dds
GOLD Site Supporter
i've been looking at full wave 2 meter antennas and havn't found one i think the reason is that to maintain the 50 ohm impeadance on vhf you will still need a balun to properly load the antenna on 2 meters and uhf tour antenna length isn't as critcal as altitude i have a 5/8 wave on my snow trac and half wave on my truck they both preform equaly well as you get into the hf bands around 10 meter bigger is better starts to be more the rule of thumb just remember the better the ground plane the better your raidation pattern will post some pics later.
 
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