Don't be little this antenna! I'm here to say I've had mine up for the last 3 years with NO problems. I'm using a Kenwood TS-2000, pushing 50 watts plus at times. A+++ antenna!
I bought this a few weeks ago. Hung it about thirty feet from a tree and I can hit my local D-Star repeater (8 miles away) with 50 mW, and FM repeaters over twenty miles away with 5 watts
Bought 9 of these tuned for our fire department members portable radios. I can consistently hit a county repeater 32 miles way!!!! Our fire page and medial repeater is 18 miles away...... No missed calls/pages now
I just bought one tuned for gmrs and murs frequencies. It looks well made. I’m installing it on my roofline as soon i receive the coaxial cable. I can’t wait to try it out.
Thanks for the video. I finally ordered one and will hook up my Anytone 878 HT to it in my shack first. Might get a better one someday (mobile 2m radio). This will keep me inside when I am on local 2m nets. Have an entrance panel with lightning arrestors in place as well. Just getting my ham shack operational. Made my first HF QSO this week. Progress. Haha. All the best, 73 de KI5HXM
I spray things I don't want to get wet with never-wet, or some other hydrophobic spray. It lasts a couple years in weather, and won't become hydrophillic when it deteriorates like most paints do, even clear coats. I'm not sure how long it will last inside the pipe. Surely at least several years. You can spray it on the outside of the antenna too, if you have problems with snow building up on the antenna in the winter time. Believe it or not, in order for snow to stick to things, it needs to become wet first, and when that happens, it slides right off. I learned to do this installing satellite dishes and terrestrial wireless internet antennas in places with lots of snow. It cut down on service calls tremendously.
Good to know, I am not worried about the show out here as its the Nevada desert, we do get snow once every few years, but not much, I was more worried about the sun beating on it, as out here the sun will destroy almost anything left out in it long enough. Thanks for the info, I will have to check out the never-wet stuff for other projects I have going on here.
I used to live in St. George, UT, which is basically the same weather as southern Nevada. I used that trick when I would go do jobs in Brian Head, because I didn't want to drive an hour up there just to brush snow off of stuff. Now I live in Indiana, and although they don't get as much snow here as Brian Head, I still use it on my terrestrial wireless applications, because nobody wants to climb a tower in the cold because of snow and ice buildup. PVC pipe doesn't like the sun too much though. I wonder if there is some kind of UV protective paint that could extend the life of the PVC. It also seems like ABS might work, but I'm not sure if you can get ABS in those sizes. I usually see it much bigger. Anyway, thanks for the video. It is an interesting look for a j-pole.
These antennas work really well. I just put another one on my shed tonight. I keep one of these and the portable roll up one in my faraday cage as well.
Just stumbled on this. Do you have any experience with N9TAX. I've very familiar with Ed. He lives in Sunnyvale, CA not far from where I lived.BTW, did the PVC do any detuning to the annetnna? I'm thinking about getting a MURS/GMRS version
Yes, was trying to do this as cheaply as possible, it worked very well, I now keep this antenna inside and use a different one out there but I use the antenna often when we do events.
Excellent video and how to put this antenna together, I am still looking for something for a semi permanent antenna to leave at an off grid location. I am curious if you know, could a person put a hook at the top of the pipe and use that as a mounting point to lift this into the trees in the woods. I am new to the ham world, so I don't know if the would affect the SWR or not, or possibly even make the pipe about 6" longer to give it more clearance from the paravcord knot used to hoist it up into the top of a tree. Thanks again for the video and I hope you have a blessed week my friend. Dale KI5ARH
I am pretty sure you can mount it from the top and it would not hurt the SWR at all.. but to be sure I would say check the website for his email and email Ed, he is great about replying to questions and will help you far more than I could.. as I just set it up via the directions. Thanks, and welcome to the world of ham radio!
How do feel about it a couple years later and vs the tram 1477 you later reviewed? Thinking the ed fong painted black ir the tram in back. Either one on black fence too rail mast to blend in.
I actually got a second1477 for mobile operations and I like them both, You don't want to paint the Ed Fong, they mention it in the directions as most paints contain some kind of metals and that will screw up the antenna,
Just curious, PVC should be "Radio-Opaque", Can anyone explain how or why the thicker/stronger PVC would prevent any of the signal from getting out compared to the thinner PVC????
I also added a TEE on the feed end, primed all the slip joints and fed the connector into the right angle of the tee. Using a stainless multi turn hose clamp on the tee hub where the thin wall vertical is for a stronger assembly.. at the bottom hub of the tee was a foot long piece of standard sch 40 pvc for clamping to a 1 inch emt mast pole. Michigan experienced some 35 to 55 mph rainy gusts in March 2018 and the oem fittings popped apart..(the reason for primer and clamp). At 3' above roof peak and 12' back to soffet/gutter area, swr on 2m mid band or 145.5 mhz was 1.1:1 . At both 143.750 mhz and 147.800 mhz swr jumped to 2.35:1 which is still safe to work at 24 watt rf. On the 440 mhz or 7cm band the swr was favoring the upper end from 445.00 to 447.00 mhz with a swr 1.45:1 and a sharp curve to 2.955 :1 or higher swr . I think it is well worth the $36 . Thanks Ed Fong !! kb8qlz
I live in humid area, and while not an antenna expert, was told that for railings, fence posts, and similar that condensation is always a thing, and drilling weep holes is necessary to keep moisture from pooling up.
@@Iridium242 worse comes to worse...disassemble the antenna from the base cap (or vice-versa) and check for moisture. If the humidity is high during assembly purge the tube with a vacuum cleaner as the cap is placed.
I used RG 8 Coax, nothing fancy, and to mount it, I used pipe clamps on the bottom cap of the antenna since its the non resonant part of the antenna. It worked great but gave this away to someone when I upgraded to a different antenna.
I have the N9TAX version of this antenna , had it 3 years it handles higher power works great. Also cost a little less and comes with 16 feet of coax and the connector of choice. I love it. David Byrd KN4BHS
Yes, I actually got this for our simplex frequency we use around town, works great for that. Since I use this on my radio in the work shop/ garage, I wanted to make sure I had a way to monitor or chat on the simplex frequency while in there.
Hello, thank you for review. Planning to buy this for Philippines in order for communities to converse especially during typhoon season. I was asked to do proof of concept and buy a bundle. I hope to have a solution before then next typhoon season. Please. What coax cable options can I use, RG58? I read below you used RG8.Thank you in advanced. 73, KM6ZIY
I made a jpole design out of 12GA solid copper and tuned it for 463MHz (swr of less than 1.05). I installed it at a prepper site in the woods, and it received from a 5W HT from up to 5 miles away. I then bought a DBJ-1 tuned for gmrs and murs (swr of 1.3), and its reception at 462.75 was about half the distance as my $2 jpole. MURS frequency was just as bad. Everyone says "it works", but other designs work better.
I just realised its potential for emergency use.. just look at it.. it's just a couple of wires and you could roll it up and stuff it on your bag.. wow.. great
Nearly all paint has metal in it. Even standard Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams house paint uses titanium dioxide for the pigment. That said, I was about to paint my PVC and didn't put that together either. Think I will just sand lightly and clear coat.
