Junk Box VHF Antenna

(Please note that this is NOT intended to be used for a full-time antenna)

Ever been caught in a situation without a antenna when you needed it? Ever been caught using a HT with that little short antenna which is not much more than a dummy load? Look in your junk box and I am sure there is an antenna laying right in there!

On March 28, 2010, right in the middle of a severe weather event, I found myself right in that spot! One week prior to this I had removed my tower and antennas for replacement and only had a G5RV up for HF use and NO VHF/UHF antenna at all at the time. The only HT on hand was a 750mw unit that may or may not receive a repeater depending on location. That is when I turned to the 'Junk Box' for a antenna. Very simple in construction, no cost, and less than 2 minutes the 2 meter rig was on the air!

MATERIALS USED:

Coax Jumper approx 15' long w/PL-259 connector on each end

Twin Lead Speaker Wire (at least 20" in length)

Black Tape

Pocket Knife

Ceiling Fan (optional)

For construction, the twin lead was cut to 19" in length and then split to have 2 equal lengths. A Dipole can be figured by dividing 468 by the frequency to be used. This will give you the total length of the Dipole so you will need to divide this total by 2 so you woill have the length of each leg. (For example for a Dipole for 146.000Mhz: 468 would be divided by 146.000 which will give you a total Dipole length of 3.21 feet for each leg length to be 1.605 feet) Once I had the 2 lenghts of 19". I removed approx 1.5" of the insulation from one end of each of the wires. At this point one of the wires was attached to the center pin of the PL-259 and held in place with black tape. The other wire was attached to the outter ring of the PL-259 with black tape holding it in place. Once both legs were secured to the PL-259, it was placed on the ceiling fan with both legs streched over the blades in opposite directions. Be sure the ceiling fan is OFF if you use it to support the dipole!

If you are wondering what kind of SWR I had on this, the next day I connected the analyzer to it because I was wondering what the SWR was myself. Over the entire 2 meter band from 144.00Mhz to 148.000Mhz the SWR run from 1.4:1 to 1.7:1 which is not perfect but not enough to worry about.

So, next time you are need of an antenna, just look around and think. Everyone has junk wire laying around for a quick Dipole (coathangers work also), make a roll-up twin-lead J-Pole to pin up on the wall, or take that old mag-mount antenna and place it on a metal pizza pan or the refrigerator and get on the AIR. If you are using an HT remember to have proper adapters on hand to be able to remove that "dummy load" antenna and connect your "Junk Box" antenna.

Antenna show with 2 leads of wire attached to PL-259 laying on freezer.

Junk Box Dipole shown 'installed' drapped over ceiling fan as used on March 28, 2010

Article and Photos submitted by Dal, W4YQY.