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Homemade base antenna?
- Thread starter Av8rRob
- Start date
rv7charlie
Well Known Member
Kitplanes has had probably a dozen different base station antenna designs over the years. A stroll through their archives should give you plenty of ideas.
wirejock
Well Known Member
Simple. 1/2 wave antenna.
Get a piece of copper rod 3'-10 1/4" long.
Solder it to the center lead of coax. You can use a piecebof PVC to hold it or fabricate something fancier. Works great with #12 Romex too.
Make four equal length rods for a ground plane. Cinnect all four and solder those to the shield of the coax. Four sections of any metal will work. Copper pipe, rods, etc.
Should be resonant at 121.500 Mhz.
Leave it up to you to make the mount.
I've made antennas with aluminum arrow shafts too.
Makes a great lightning rod so don't have it connected during a storm!
Get a piece of copper rod 3'-10 1/4" long.
Solder it to the center lead of coax. You can use a piecebof PVC to hold it or fabricate something fancier. Works great with #12 Romex too.
Make four equal length rods for a ground plane. Cinnect all four and solder those to the shield of the coax. Four sections of any metal will work. Copper pipe, rods, etc.
Should be resonant at 121.500 Mhz.
Leave it up to you to make the mount.
I've made antennas with aluminum arrow shafts too.
Makes a great lightning rod so don't have it connected during a storm!
N804RV
Well Known Member
Here ya go. You can tune it to optimize for airband. Instructions are on the website.
https://vk2zoi.com/articles/half-wave-flower-pot/
https://vk2zoi.com/articles/half-wave-flower-pot/
GalinHdz
Well Known Member
Here is a short video on making a 2meter antenna. Just cut the lengths to 127.5MHz and you are good to go for the Aviation band. I have built 10-15 of these over the years and if done correctly will have about a 1.2:1 VSWR across the entire band. It is a very easy project to complete.
Building a 2meter base antenna
Building a 2meter base antenna
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wjb
Well Known Member
This is a good design; I've built many of these, too, with good effect. I've soldered the ground plane radials (downward sloping wires) rather than using the screw method. It will save a few $0.01's
Be sure to mount it OUTSIDE the metal hangar; on a 3-4 ft+ pole above the roof would be about perfect.
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GalinHdz
Well Known Member
Nope. Just make sure none of the radials or the active element touches the metal hangar and get the antenna as high as practical above the top of the hangar. FWIW I mounted mine using a 8' long pressure treated 2x4 piece of lumber and it works great.
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I had a homemade airband antenna that worked well at KCCB when I had a hangar there.
I am now using one of these tuned to 122.975 and it works perfect for the same amount of money had I made my own. I have it mounted the way it says here with PVC pipe but have a hook in the ceiling of my hangar with it hanging inside.
I am now using one of these tuned to 122.975 and it works perfect for the same amount of money had I made my own. I have it mounted the way it says here with PVC pipe but have a hook in the ceiling of my hangar with it hanging inside.
rv7charlie
Well Known Member
If the hangar has a metal roof....
Yikes!
For me, anyway, yes, though it was a TV antenna. Blew the coax clean out of the TV, backfed the outlet. TV obviously dead, two computers dead, clothes dryer dead. There was a cordless telephone on the same circuit as the TV, which allowed the current surge to kill all of the telephone devices in the house (this may be how it got the computers--both had modems), plus the telephone network interface outside. It's been 20+ years, so I'm sure there was stuff I don't remember, but yes, antennae are great lightning rods.
Disconnect the radio when you're not there. BNC connectors are super-easy.
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