I am in the process of making my 2nd 1/4 wave ground plane home brew scanner antenna. The first one works but looks horrible and has alot of tape holding it together and is made with all #10 wire. Now that i have a better understanding of how to make that type of antenna i am making a better quality and better looking one. For the vertical i have a piece of #14 wire soldered to the SO239, and i was going to continue the run of the vertical with a section(actually 2 sections put together) of old steel broom handle by running the short piece of wire through a hole in the handle. Will that do ok for the vertical? Or would i be better off wrapping the copper wire around a run of coat hanger? which doing that will require me using a small length of PVC for support. I was also wandering if i use the broom handle, which has some rust on it but i removed some with the grinder to make sure i had continuity, but i want to remove the rest with sand paper and after i do that how can i prevent further rust with out loosing continuity? Also i am going to use hanger for the radials, which are going to be about the same length as the vertical. I'm mostly listening to 140-160MHZ but have it built for 108 just in the event i want to go that low. I'll upload pics of my progress so far later on today..

Building an antenna out of magnetic materials (other than certain ferrites) is usually an extremely bad idea.

so, i should try to find an aluminum pole instead?

Other than the risk of rust, I see no downside. Especially as this is not a transmitter antenna.

For about 10 years, I ran a 160 mtr. dipole made of galvanized steel electric fence wire.

Rich

If i cant find an aluminum pole, i will go back to the steel idea.

Even a receive only antenna that's a half wavelength will have (relatively) significant currents induced at the resonant frequency. Any ferrous material will cause significant losses.

If this were a long wire high impedance antenna for broadcast band, then current would be negligible, and you could probably get away with a steel conductor, but I wouldn't want to do it on a halfwave antenna.

I understand what youre saying.. so i should see about using aluminum,copper or brass instead.. Now that i think about it, i could use a piece of copper pipe, like 1/2". I imagine i could buy a 5 ft section and use about 2 ft of it. That would bring me up to 29 inches, which is a tad long but still usable and would just extend my coverage to just a few more lower frequencies. **I think i'll skip the copper if i have to buy some, as its 7.00 for a 2 ft section of 1/2" at my local Menards..**

What are you looking at...about 24-30" of vertical height?

If you've got a hobby shop nearby you could probably find brass rod (or even welding rod?) in 24 inch sections. That would stand erect on its own and would fit nicely and solder easily to the SO-239.

At scanner frequencies, all the current is in the top couple of mils....skin effect. So use a copper-plated welding rod if you are really concerned about losses. The current will be in nano-amperes.

Try Google for 2 meter ham homebrew whip antenna projects. Or salvage a collapsible whip from an old FM portable radio.

Rich

I'm looking at between 24-30" and i already had 5" of wire soldered to my so-239. Its stranded wire soldered to solid wire. I tried and tried to solder the solid #14 to the so-239 and it just wasnt going to solder. I already have the solder joints insulated with gorilla glue, to keep moisture out. I was thinking a brass brazing rod, but harbor freight doesnt sell them. I could go to a welding store, but i'd pay a large mark up for something like that bc all the welding stores are small independent businesses. We have 1 hobby store, but its mostly craft items.

I was still thinking a copper pipe,I just checked at Lowes, and it is almost 2.00 cheaper.I imagine i could solder the wire to the pipe,if i cant i would put it through a hole to connect it. To protect the connections to insulate them from touching the ground side i'm going to sleve it in 3/4" PVC. Even if i were to salvage a telescopic antenna from a radio, it is still steel isnt it? which would put me back to square one with the steel tubing. I would build it in a 7/8" mast like you show, but i'm not trying to buy 7/8" pipe or that type of so-239. I built mine mostly out of stuff i have on hand,which is probably a little different from how others would do it. I am they type that doesnt like spending lots of money to buy things when i can make do with stuff i have on hand.

Look for stores that carry K&S hobby metal products.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/hobbies/buil ... d-s-metal/

You can probably find a brass tube and a brass rod. The two can be telescoped and joined.
http://www.ksmetals.com/RetailLocations.html
Rich

Thanks, i never been to hobbylobby.. never thought they would have anything of interest to me. I think i'd use the 1/4" brass rods.. They would be a little cheaper then getting one 2' piece of copper pipe. So, i'd go the brass for my vertical run and would i still be good using hanger for my radials?

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... Id=2062260

Rich

Questions, How are you planning on mounting the antenna? Is it for inside or outside? I've built many, some worked great and some not at all. What I'm using now is an inside antenna for the scanner. It has pretty good gain and is as good as the outside one. I bought one of those ht bnc dual band gain antennas, got a right angle bnc connector and presto it works..pretty much as good as the outside slimjim antenna. Of course I live in a valley with 2 mountain ranges on the east and west which limits vhf reception in those directions. Depending where you want to go with the antenna there are many options available..73 Alan

Its going to go outside 12-15ft in the air. I dont want to go any higher or i will have to run more then 50 ft of coax. However if there is nothing worth while to listen to in my area from 100MHZ on up i'm not even going to go through with the build.. as it will not be worth my time. Right now i'm trying to find out what i can still receive in my area that did not go digital.

You might try radioreference.com to see what is available. I'm lucky here in the backwoods of montana. Its almost all vhf and all open for reception on standard scanner (narrowband ready of course). I don't gain enough going through the wall and out to an outside antenna to hear that much more so guess I'll stay with the little pryme dualband antenna. You might look at the antennas at arrow antennas in Cheyenne, WY. If I ever put one back outside on the house it will be one of those. Luckily, I have my ham station in a seperate shop with a yard full of antennas..good luck, Alan

I'm actually awaiting a response from some members over there. They still list some vhf freqs for my area, but it seems like they are mostly paging and call tones.. but i know absolutely every last thing isnt digitally trunked in my area.

do u have a metalsupermarket in ur area???

http://www.metalsupermarkets.com/MSC-st ... px?MAP=USA

Nope, sure dont. Never even heard of one.

BTW, Off topic but some decent tropo the other day, a couple first time OTA TV catches from Lima, OH
There were others but this is one that I wrote down. Sound familiar?
35 WOHL-CD Lima, OH