Since building a 6m coaxial dipole in January 2016 and later a 2m coaxial dipole in February 2018, I have often thought how a monoband half-wave vertical coaxial dipole would perform on 28 MHz. Summer is here in the southern hemisphere, therefore now is an excellent time to construct a 10m half-wave coaxial dipole for…
This 2m yagi antenna is light on the back-pocket and relatively easy to construct. This project starts with an old VHF TV antenna purchased from a local ‘Green’ recycle depot for $5.00 AUD. The repurposed TV antenna was a Phased Array comprised of two aluminium booms and four elements or eight 1/4 wave elements. Each…
I am constructing a lightweight 40/30/20/17/15m trap style inverted V dipole antenna for SOTA purposes. Can you use an antenna analyser to check the resonant frequency of a HF trap? Yes you can, here is a practical solution. The purpose of this post is to demonstrate how you can use a modern antenna analyser to…
At First use of a ZS6BKW antenna 1 February 2018, I mounted the ZS6BKW antenna on a 10 metre (32.8 feet) telescopic pole. For SOTA purposes the ZS6BKW antenna (enhanced G5RV) is quite versatile allowing operation on 80m through to 6m with the exception of 30 and 15m. With all the benefits invested this antenna,…
Saturday 23 November 2019 – I had planned to participate in the WIA VHF-UHF field day, however the forecast temperature is 33 degrees C (hot) and we have a thick red dust haze (hot northerly winds blow red dust from central Australia) which isn’t good for the respiratory system. So the plan for today is…
Homebrew 2m/70cm duplexer for 23 and 13cm SOTA activations. Why buy one when you can make your own? All components are mounted on a single sided copper clad board. I will use my FT-817 at 1 watt to drive the 23 and 13cm transverters via the duplexer. The duplexer will permit instant band chages. SG-Lab…
Peter VK3YE recently published a 2m rectangular loop antenna article in Amateur Radio Magazine edition 5 (Sep-Oct 19). The feedpoint impedance of the 2m rectangular loop is 50 ohms thus avoiding the need for a 1/4 wave impedance transformer. I have constructed the lightweight 150 gram (5.2 ounces) antenna and plan to use it for…
At this link I constructed a 2m lightweight telescopic dipole where the toroid choke is a T37-0 (Tan 0 mix, 50 to 350 Mhz). This version is using a T37-17 (Blue/Yellow 17 mix, 20 to 200 MHz). In addition to the change of balun core, I made the center insulator 5 mm (~1/4 inch) longer…
2m 146 MHz dipole antenna construction project At SOTA – Lightweight Portable 2m – 70cm Dipole Antenna I described the construction of a compact lightweight dipole antenna using commonly available parts, a perfect addition to the emergency 2m Go-box. In that article I used a small section of kitchen cutting board as the mounting block…
2m Dipole Antenna Construction Project Lightweight portable QRP 2m & 70cm half wave dipole for SOTA or an emergency antenna for the 2m and 70cm Go-box. Parts: Section of nylon kitchen cutting board 50 x 30 mm x 7 mm (2 inch x 1 1/8 inch x 1/4 inch) 2 x 495 mm 6 section…
Get out of the Radio Shack and Live Life 