Copper Pipe 1/4 Wave 11m CB Radio Antenna Giant Sequoia Nation  

Glad your building! We made 11 meter antennas in the 70s but 1/2 inch schedule 40. Then used a reducer on one end inserted 3/8 24 nut used on trucker antenna mounts soldering it in reducer. 3/8 24 stud made it work with 3/8 24 antenna mounts. Same reducer on opposite end and used appropriate copper tubing to adjust for SWR. Boy did those things talk!!

I’ll finish arching throughout the day as time allows. Love it man ! I’ve always thought about this too ! You beat me to it

This reminds me of the 10 meter band dipole that I made out of 1/2" copper pipe when I first got my ham license. I couldn't get the SWR below 3:1 and I had 16 feet of copper u-bolted to a piece of 1'x4' plywood up in the air over my garage. My wife made me take it down before I could tune it because she thought it was ugly. Nice work making something of your own design and succeeding where I failed!

I love the technique. It can be easily used to build a portable yagi antenna too. Thanks for sharing!

Very cool. Great video

Very good antenna you've made for the 11 meters out of copper pipe and copper is a very good conductor and you should get out really well on the CB with your homemade antenna mate OK so good luck with it and I've had a J-pole for the 2/70 amateur radio bands and it worked fantastic and I had it in my loft and I spoke to people all over the place locals and long distances on the 2 meters and it's just amazing what you can actually do with just a copper pipe made in to an antenna and now that I've seen your video well I might also make my own CB antenna with copper pipe and once it is done then I will experiment with it and see how far away I can get OK. Thanks and best 73's for now cheers. Stephen M3SNV 73's.

The length difference is due to the diameter of the copper pipe verses the diameter of the SS whip. I would have soldered all the joints.

Seems like a good option for a base station setup, being a little heavy for mobile operation. I've built two base antennas using solid copper ground wire from house wiring cable as the resonating element. They both work well, but the one I used an antenna calculator for actually has a slightly worse SWR on the higher channels than the kludgy one I just put together with 103" resonating element and 102" ground plane wires. Both antennas have range tested to around 14kms base to mobile operation, which I think isn't too bad. Longest contact was 15.5kms distant and still able to discern the message through the noise. I'm no expert in radio or antenna theory; is velocity factor the conductivity of the material itself? Like how well it conducts the signal? In any case, thanks for giving me more ideas in case I need to built more antennas!

That is a great idea 💡, thanks for that,I wonder what 15mm copper pipe would be better for receiving, anyway it works and I would loved to see you on top of a hill to really see how far you get out, thanks again Alan from ENGLAND. CT 48/70. 73S AND TAKE CARE 💯😱💡👍👍

Great editing ❤

Nice build, congrats, it works great. But to judge from the readings of the Nano VNA, your antenna is actually a little bit too short, because the best resonant points are in the 10m Ham- band.

Nice job

Explained well

Great job, that is some interesting stuff. Do you think you could get better results if you solder or silver solder all the connecting joints?

Interesting I got a long piece of copper pipe in the garage. I have actually wondered if I could make a antenna out of it. Now I know. 73's from the Guitarman Northeast Georgia!

such a smart dude.

NanoVNA, you can turn the scale on, it's in the menu, and shows a grid which means you don't need to scroll through to see all positions.

The 1.8 swr is between the radio and amp. I would recommend a half wave jumper for the velocity of the coax.

Good video. Antenna looks and works great. If you couldn't or did not want to solder the connections some good conductive anti seize would help the joints over time resist corrosion and get long lasting conductivity. Just another idea I just watched a HAM add a small telescopic antenna to the top of a HAM stick to make it easier to tune this might be a good idea for this one in stead of the bolt on top. I need a CB antenna for home I think I will make one like this. Thanks Jim KI7SSO

Hay whats up . I used to live up there in dallas. Any way since you are already half way why not make that a half wave or even really trick it out go for the 5/8 wave . Since it has to be for parked only situations. Copper bottom and the 102 top . You already have what you need. Heck . I have the stuff too i may try it myself. My 955 into my 2x8 at the park 1/2 wave would be a blast.

Leave that antenna outside in an easily accessible area and you will have copper scrappers stealing it. Paint it with epoxy paint black or a sky blue grey to make it less of a target for thieves.

Nice project, pedantically the SWR dip is not the resonant point, if you look at the reactance plot with the VNA you will see it. A vertical fed against a groundplane should have an impedance of about 35 ohms at resonance (an SWR of about 1.5). In your case with the feedpoint being on one of the roof bars the reactance there will usually require a shorter whip. If you were to make the same whip but put it on a hole mount directly through the vehicle roof the whip would likely be a bit longer for minimum SWR. The fatter conductor should give you slightly better bandwidth than a typical stainless steel whip. Looks like the input circuitry of the amp needs attention, should be a better match than that. Enjoy your hobby.

How come you Didn't just buy a 10 ft Copper pipe, and Most of the time 8ft copper Is 96 1/2 inches anyway, some times a 1 longer, But I am going to Build the Same one for a base antenna, It will be 30 feet above my Roof, See how it works Thanks for the Help

Nice set up but you should never use the built in swr for testing

nice job

I would Like to Buy A antenna tuner like you Have, could you Tell me the Name of the model, Or where I could buy one Thank you Brian

Might wasnt to solder on the bottom cap and a set of male and female threaded fittings in place of the coupling because copper will corrode and cause poor connections

Sweeeet !

The antenna will become more efficient if you add a cross at the tip of the antenna, with each arm having a width of about 12 inches. This modification will also increase the bandwidth. The reason is that the current max of the antenna is drawn higher, and the higher the current max, the more energy is radiated due to ground losses. These losses are particularly high when an antenna is set up at a height less than half a wavelength. Naturally, the length of the radiator must be shortened.

U could have upgraded your whip for far less than using pipe.. stainless steel locator wire that goes on top of cable wire. 103.5 inches ..strip ends and wrap 102 inch whip at base with a right hand twist.

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Osha would love this information

Actual 1/4 wave length in feet is 8.6 feet.

Make it cheaper. Use schedule 40 PVC a little longer than needed the use speaker wire for your radiating element and ground plane..

now build a copper 5/8 wave ground plaine base antenna lol

I would have used conduit instead of copper. There will be no noticeable difference in signal strength, but a big difference in your wallet.

Because Nano VNA you can throw away, I threw mine against the wall, just measured rubbish, got a Rig Expert from a colleague, built the same thing again and lo and behold, I had to shorten it by 2cm and that was it and yes, not everything from China is good even if it looks good!

Wait a second, the 11 meter "CB" band is 26.965Mhz - 27.405Mhz. According to what your VNA was showing us, your best SWR was WAY above 27.405 somewhere up around the 10 meter band. Specifically, channel 33 is 27.335Mhz so the antenna could definitely be a little longer. BUT it's still pretty good the way it is. However, i noticed your antenna light coming on intermittently while you transmitted. Most folks would say you shouldn't trust it and get an external meter. Which you have. But, in your case, if you are using an amp like i think you are, i'd have my output tune checked in case you're getting high reflect coming back from the amp.

At the beginning of the video you said the antenna would be cut at 108" but at the end you said 95.5" Why is that?

The Macgyver antenna well done do the ferrite beads make a difference positioned at the base of the antenna ?

Nice job on the antenna! One suggestion i would say, is for the center coupling, change to a threaded couplers male and female, and solder each on to each section of pipe. This way you can thread/unthread them and solder each for a better electrical connection. Good luck, and again, nice work! 0576, Dustmaker, Southern Michigan.

So why is your antenna light blinking?