Fishing Pole Antenna (Part 3)
I thought I had made breakdowns for all my antenna projects, but I guess I was just sending them in emails to people that asked for them. Here's the loadout for the Fishing pole antenna. This started as a 53' end fed vee with a 9:1 unun that branched into two different antenna. Project29 and this.
- Caribeaners from a hamfest somewhere. Irving I think. 3$
- Paracord from Dollar Tree 3$
- Shakespeare 20' Crappie pole from Amazon 20$
- Landscape stakes from Lowes 9$
- Guy ring made poly-carbonate golf car windshield 0$
- rope tensioners made from poly-carbonate golf car windshields 0$ (Check out these alternate tensioners)
- 22gu stained wire at 29ft length. 11$ 100' roll on Amazon (Not seen)
- 9:1 Unun 0$ Donated to the project by Craig Coley WB5KUO (Not seen) the exact model ebay listing
There's also a couple of jubilee clamps to keep it from collapsing from guy rope tension. Also I have 4 bundles of 8 1m radials that I use on everything portable I have. Pet boarder fence wire is super cheap for this.
Holy Smokes - These things are awesome!
I was going to make some rope tensioners when I thought maybe Amazon has something cheap that I wouldn't have to waste good poly-carbonate and get a heat stroke in the garage. Then I found these. 7$ and came same day. I was a little disappointed when they came in. They came in a large jiffy pack and the contents were smaller than the palm of my hand. The first cord was a struggle as it was the larger normal size, but worked well. The rest of the cords were the smaller 25ft ones I bought at Dollar Tree and they fit perfect. Took about 10 minutes to string up all 6 cords on my 29ft end feed vertical, but took only a few seconds to get the vertical straight. Very good buy.
Project29
I only named this Project29 so it was easier to search in my email and notes. This started over here. This really started as an idea of an antenna for the attic and just evolved into this. The 9:1 you see here will actually go in my attic with 53ft of border fence wire. No idea how that's going to work out.
The end feed that became a vertical
I started this afternoon testing various end fed wire antennas when I hit 29ft with a 9:1 being to be the perfect combo with 50ft of coax and a ugly balun at the beginning. Then I got to thinking of the antenna Gary gave me and the extra bits too. So I stacked a 29ft aluminium mast and stuck the 9:1 on it. It worked pretty good albeit very directional. So I'll test again with my fans of 1m radials. Nice to put something together that actually works for a change and zero maths applied to it.
So the chain goes like this right now
Radio -> coax -> ugly balun -> 50ft coax -> 9:1 Unun -> 29.5ft aluminium straight up.
Note: I needed that ugly balun there so the coax shielding reflection would work as a counterpoise for the antenna. That's why it was very directional.
GoBox update
Well I took the Alinco out of my go box and installed a FT-891. Also picked up a Signalink audio interface. Only con I have run into is how the ATU interface works. But I'll have that sussed out Saturday from HRO at HamCom. I might try and find a 2U box to put this in too. The 945 isn't really needed as there's an SWR meter on the radio. And the drawer weights a ton.
