Very good idea Gary. You are our idea man. I have an SDR dongle and the Hack RF, I did notice how hot it got laying on the desk with papers laying around and just haven't used it much lately.
I like your feedpoint idea. Simple to adjust if needed. Seems a little pointless on a set and forget antenna though. When tuned correctly it should cover 146-148Mhz under 1.2 SWR.
Hi Gary, I like your idea about using a union on the longer vertical element. How about also using a union where you have the screw for the support tube? You and your family have a Happy 4th and stay safe. 73 WJ3U
Thanks again Gary, I might give it a try. I watched your videos on the mag-loop, I watch videos from them all, you made it look simple. I made mine different it is for up to 700 watts but for now running it at 20-50 because of the capacitor. It is making digital contacts all over the country from the basement. If I can find a very high voltage vacuum cap, I will be set. As it sits, I can tune 40-15 meters, I hard plumbed the cap so it's hard to put more in series, but I have a new one in the plans, then a J-pole lord willing, I'm 75.
I am a real fan of Magnetic Loop Antennas. I made mine using car brake pipe etc. It's dual band on 20m and 40m by connecting a 100pf capacitor across the tuning cap. Also have 2 variable caps in parallel. 1 is for course tuning and the other fine tuning . Works OK up to 10watts. My next Loop Aerial will be large as intend using a scrap trampoline metal ring. Going to be a big one motor controlled. Cheers from old George
Gary I grew up at Midway now Patterson rd, I actually knew Mr. Alva Patterson but anyways up from where our neighborhood was is a hill and on top of that hill was a small graveyard at the time within a clump of trees. If I would walk to that graveyard I could look over the hill towards Tetrick road. Do you happen to know anything about that graveyard? It would be behind Big Elm elementary school up at the top of a steep hill.
That is very compact. The modern radios are great from the purely communication and many features aspect, you just probably can’t do much work to them unless you’ve done micro-miniature soldering. The older radios are great for their ability to be repaired more easily due to the size of the components.
Just installed one on my jeep. I have a bracket mounted in the rear tail gate for the antenna. On the bracket you have to sand it down to bare metal so the antenna obtains a good ground. I purchased a 3foot 1000watt fire stick antenna. Reason for the purchase was for my roadtrip across a few states and was going to expirence “severe” weather on the way, so I picked up the radio just in case for road conditions.
I'd love to see a video on how you made the air capacitor for tuning. What tools did you use? How did you calculate the diameter of the two loops based on wavelength of the band you were making it for?
Hello Gary, I have taken you as teacher in my Ham radio hobby, thank you for showing us practical ways to do make things that could be expensive. KD9OAM
Hi Gary. Greetings from the UK. Weather here raining so I have been playing around with my mag loop antenna. I like the Xmas light indicator and also the meter. So going to make one myself. Cheers from old George in the UK 🇬🇧 you may like my antenna. Made from car brake pipe. 😂
