Looking to make a 2 Meter Antenna

[Joeylc]

Hay all well im trying make up a 2 Meter Antenna and as a NEWBIE lol  not sure where to start have seen lots of videos on the topic.
  2 Meter Dipole Antenna,  2 Meter Vertical Antenna, Five Element 2 Meter Antenna, and last a  2 Meter J-pole...   

Wow lots of info and lots of choices  but where to start ???? 

What do you all think about the home made j-pole ????    SEE VIDEO???

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/QOwznvSA-sM&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/QOwznvSA-sM&rel=0</a>

Is this worth doing.... ???      Thanks for any input...  Having Fun Joeylc 

BTW: We Shayla and I Passed our Amateur Radio Test this week and will soon have our call signs.        Just waiting for the Government AKA FCC to grant the licenses   

Sure hope it's not like waiting for our Government issued DOJ License !!!!! 

[KirkLasVegas]

Congrats on that! The J-pole works well, but not easy to make and if you dont have access to a antenna analyzer you wont know of it's working correctly......
The dipole and groundplane are EASY to make and work well...
Suggestion.....
A CHEAP (did I say cheap) but decent handheld radio is the Baofeng UV-5R/UV-5R+/UV-5RE series radios.....
They do 2 meters as well as 70Cm (420-450Mhz) have a large battery for (get this) $50 on Ebay!
Here is a link, they are in Phoenix, $91 for a PAIR of these!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-2013-Latest-Version-BaoFeng-UV-5R-Plus-136-174-400-480-MHz-Ham-2-way-Radio-/261162358763?pt=2_Way_Radios_FRS&hash=item3cce7d57eb

Kirk (WB6EGR)

[Slots_007]

J-Pole antennas are excellent, if you lack the tools to build one yourself checkout:

http://www.arrowantennas.com/osj/j-pole.html

Great antenna for the money, I bought one of these back when I first obtained my license and they work great on VHF/UHF.

The handheld beam is great for Satellite work along with a dual band hand-held radio.
 

[KirkLasVegas]

While J-Poles do work well (a shunt fed antenna reject out of band crap) you MUST put it on a antenna analyzer to see what it's REALLY doing.....
Find someone with a MFJ-259/269 analyzer and take a look at it before operating thru it.
If your thinking of buying anything HAM related or test gear wise, the MFJ-259 or 269 Analyzer is a great investment to your collection.

[Slots_007]

While J-Poles do work well (a shunt fed antenna reject out of band crap) you MUST put it on a antenna analyzer to see what it's REALLY doing.....
Find someone with a MFJ-259/269 analyzer and take a look at it before operating thru it.
If your thinking of buying anything HAM related or test gear wise, the MFJ-259 or 269 Analyzer is a great investment to your collection.

Have one! I know some people HATE MFJ, But I have never had a problem with MFJ equipment.

Very good point, I use it to check every antenna I have/put up, also using premium grade coax rated for VHF or UHF certainly helps...Avoid that Chinese plated stuff like the plague!!

If you decide to ever travel to Dayton you can get a decent discount on equipment direct from MFJ, I managed to talk the lady into selling me a few "display" units dirt cheap when the show was over.

[KirkLasVegas]

YEP!   MFJ usually means "Mostly F-ing Junk" but they hit it out of the ballpark with these analyzers!
I use only Belden LMR-400 or Andrews LDF50-4  1/2" heliax for VHF/UHF installations.
The Chinese cable is crap, so is the junk made by Tandy Wire&Cable (Radio Shack) Their "RG-8" style cable is like 66% braid. It's not fit for clothesline duty.
For low power apps, dont overlook Quad Shield RG-6 yes it is 75 ohms, the slight mismatch wont hurt you, it's loss is less than RG-8X by far on VHF/UHF.
RG-11 is all over the place for CHEAP! yes..75 ohms for CATV use, but works fine for ham use.It's a good source of Copper braid if you need some for grounding!
Simply slice off the jacket, push the braid back a little..pull out the center then flatten it (wear gloves).Solder a washer to the ends and your good to go....

[Slots_007]

YEP!   MFJ usually means "Mostly F-ing Junk" but they hit it out of the ballpark with these analyzers!
I use only Belden LMR-400 or Andrews LDF50-4  1/2" heliax for VHF/UHF installations.
The Chinese cable is crap, so is the junk made by Tandy Wire&Cable (Radio Shack) Their "RG-8" style cable is like 66% braid. It's not fit for clothesline duty.
For low power apps, dont overlook Quad Shield RG-6 yes it is 75 ohms, the slight mismatch wont hurt you, it's loss is less than RG-8X by far on VHF/UHF.
RG-11 is all over the place for CHEAP! yes..75 ohms for CATV use, but works fine for ham use.It's a good source of Copper braid if you need some for grounding!
Simply slice off the jacket, push the braid back a little..pull out the center then flatten it (wear gloves).Solder a washer to the ends and your good to go....

Great idea on the braid!

I'm CRAVING a tower soon, Planning on moving to Delaware of Pennsylvania and look forward to breaking ground with a tower...our family had a 150 foot tower for a VHF system back in the 90's and with 110 WATTS you could talk from the bottom on NJ all the way up to NY.

My current QTH is full of interference and I can only work VHF/UHF...Some HF but most of the HF band is trashed from leaky transformer, plasma TV's, Electric dog fence, etc UHG!!

[KirkLasVegas]

I put a Icom 706MK-IIG with a auto tuner and a 6/2/450 Diamond along with a Hustler 10-80Meter vertical antenna on a mountaintop site.I remote control it on 440Mhz, so I can use it mobile or handheld. With all the Digital noise from CPU's (everything has a 4/8 bit processor (like your coffee maker), those NASTY CFL (twistie lamps) TV sets,Plasma Monitors,Routers,Battery chargers,anything with a PWM controller spraying crap ALL over the band I find the mountaintop site to be rather quiet on HF.I use 8 pole bandpass filters on the VHF/UHF remote base to keep the onsite junk out of the front end of the 706 (NOT a worldclass Front end).....
I got tired of all the JUNK from consumer grade crap operating in the 902-928Mhz band here, So I fired up a transmitter on 927.2125Mhz with a ERP of 800 watts on a 5000 foot high site. BYE BYE baby monitors/900Mhz LANS/Video Senders/Wireless Speakers........
I could NOT use 432Mhz here due to the GARBAGE weather stations/remote temp senders on 433/434.0Mhz....my ATV transmitter on 434.000Mhz blows them off the band, Costco and Walmart are getting a LOT of returns. I contacted "LaCrosse" corp and bitched about their dirty product...their answer was "install a set of fresh batteries" !!!  HONESTLY??? How can they be so stupid?
GET ACTIVE on these bands or we will lose them to this kind of crap. Linksys wants the 902-928 band for their WiFi products! Will be a cold day in hell when i am forced off this 927Mhz band by Linksys! Here are a few of my 900Mhz radios!

[KirkLasVegas]

YEP!   MFJ usually means "Mostly F-ing Junk" but they hit it out of the ballpark with these analyzers!
I use only Belden LMR-400 or Andrews LDF50-4  1/2" heliax for VHF/UHF installations.
The Chinese cable is crap, so is the junk made by Tandy Wire&Cable (Radio Shack) Their "RG-8" style cable is like 66% braid. It's not fit for clothesline duty.
For low power apps, dont overlook Quad Shield RG-6 yes it is 75 ohms, the slight mismatch wont hurt you, it's loss is less than RG-8X by far on VHF/UHF.
RG-11 is all over the place for CHEAP! yes..75 ohms for CATV use, but works fine for ham use.It's a good source of Copper braid if you need some for grounding!
Simply slice off the jacket, push the braid back a little..pull out the center then flatten it (wear gloves).Solder a washer to the ends and your good to go....

Great idea on the braid!

I'm CRAVING a tower soon, Planning on moving to Delaware of Pennsylvania and look forward to breaking ground with a tower...our family had a 150 foot tower for a VHF system back in the 90's and with 110 WATTS you could talk from the bottom on NJ all the way up to NY.

My current QTH is full of interference and I can only work VHF/UHF...Some HF but most of the HF band is trashed from leaky transformer, plasma TV's, Electric dog fence, etc UHG!!

BTW...since I can't have slot machines here, i had to "Shift Gears".....now it's HAM RADIO....have to have a vice of somekind and the wife REALLY wont go for me picking up women from bars on the Harley......  <sigh>

[Slots_007]

I put a Icom 706MK-IIG with a auto tuner and a 6/2/450 Diamond along with a Hustler 10-80Meter vertical antenna on a mountaintop site.I remote control it on 440Mhz, so I can use it mobile or handheld. With all the Digital noise from CPU's (everything has a 4/8 bit processor (like your coffee maker), those NASTY CFL (twistie lamps) TV sets,Plasma Monitors,Routers,Battery chargers,anything with a PWM controller spraying crap ALL over the band I find the mountaintop site to be rather quiet on HF.I use 8 pole bandpass filters on the VHF/UHF remote base to keep the onsite junk out of the front end of the 706 (NOT a worldclass Front end).....
I got tired of all the JUNK from consumer grade crap operating in the 902-928Mhz band here, So I fired up a transmitter on 927.2125Mhz with a ERP of 800 watts on a 5000 foot high site. BYE BYE baby monitors/900Mhz LANS/Video Senders/Wireless Speakers........
I could NOT use 432Mhz here due to the GARBAGE weather stations/remote temp senders on 433/434.0Mhz....my ATV transmitter on 434.000Mhz blows them off the band, Costco and Walmart are getting a LOT of returns. I contacted "LaCrosse" corp and bitched about their dirty product...their answer was "install a set of fresh batteries" !!!  HONESTLY??? How can they be so stupid?
GET ACTIVE on these bands or we will lose them to this kind of crap. Linksys wants the 902-928 band for their WiFi products! Will be a cold day in hell when i am forced off this 927Mhz band by Linksys! Here are a few of my 900Mhz radios!

I heard about Linksys trying to get the 900Mhz band, I will refuse to give in even if the FCC orders me to stop using the band..

I have a bunch of those Motorola's and they are great, work like a charm never had a problem. I also have a vintage 80's computer with RSS so if you ever need any Sabers/System Sabers programmed I'll be happy to help.

Just got done fooling with a T3011DX key loader, still has the old Whitehouse Communications Agency sticker on the back..Fun to load DES keys in the VHF Sabers and operate secure simplex, wouldn't recommend trying this on Ham 2m since people would bitch to no end about the encryption lol

[KirkLasVegas]

They bitch about us on P-25 !!!

[Slots_007]

They bitch about us on P-25 !!!

Nice Astro's!

It sucks how some HAMs can't have a bit of fun and realize we aren't hurting anyone with P25...But the arm-chair commandos will bitch and scream till hell freezes over lol

Those have the extended housing so the DES modules will fit them, Put the two MURS wide-band channels in them and load them with DES modules/keys...You gotta like nothing but white noise!