Helped friend with a dipole antenna.

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Unit 23
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Monday 6th Feb 2012, 5:07
First Name: Richard
Location: Elgin, S.C.

Helped friend with a dipole antenna.

Post by Unit 23 »

A friend came and asked if I would help him to build a dipole ant for his cb . They are so easy to build that this surprised me and I asked why he needed help . He said that every time he built one , he would have it too long . In the process of trimming it , he always wound up making it too short and had to start over from the beginning . He said that he was planning to get his ham license and when he did he would have to get me to help him again . I told him that we could build him one that could be easily tuned for 10 , 11 or 15 meters . I thought about it and came up with the following idea . He had an abundance of RG/ 58 coax with a copper braid . We stripped the outer jacket off of enough of the coax to make a 15 meter dipole with an extra 6 inches on each element . We then removed the braid from the rest of the cable . We then cut the braid in the center made the connections to a balum made of four turns of coax made into a six inch coil and put a PL259 connector on the end of it to the coax . Before we connected the balum we cut a six inch piece of pvc tubing and drilled a hole in the center of it to run the end of the balum through . We put a strain relief on the balum lead to prevent it from pulling out of the pvc . After we pulled the balum coax back out the connections were inside , then we filled the pvc with "Great Stuff" sealant to keep water out . We stretched the braid out which pulled it into a wire which was about the size of a 10 gauge wire . We soldered the ends of the braid to keep it from fraying out . Next , we measured the elements to the calculated length and folded it back at that point . We opened the braid on the longer piece about four inches from the fold and inserted the end in the opening in the braid and pulled it tight , closing the braid onto the end which we had put into the braid . This worked like the Chinese finger cuffs that we played with when we were children . We set it up for 11 meters , knowing that when he got ready he could adjust it for either of the other bands by sliding the elements into or out of the braid . This left a loop at each end for mounting purposes . We put a barrel connector on the balum and attached his coax there and then weather proofed the connectors . We erected the antenna horizontally about six feet high and adjusted the length on each end until we achieved a swr of about 1.3 . After the adjustment was done we wrapped a wire around the braid right behind the soldered end to prevent the adjustment from changing . We erected the antenna between two tree limbs about thirty feet high and rechecked the swr . It was at 1.2 . He was very happy with the antenna , especially after I told him that it could be used horizontally , as an inverted V or as a vertical . He has been using it for six months now and is happy with it . No money passed hands , but, I was paid handsomely with hid gratitude and praises .
Unit 23
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Monday 6th Feb 2012, 5:07
First Name: Richard
Location: Elgin, S.C.

Re: Helped friend with a dipole antenna.

Post by Unit 23 »

Replies , praises , and recommendations appreciated . Be easy on me because this is my first try at writing for a post . If you try any of my ideas PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW THEY WORK FOR YOU .
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