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Ground Plane Contest

that is pretty damn cool homer ;) . definately thinking outside of the box , well outside of the hen house to the fence anyway :) . just goes to show that anything metallic can be an antenna . it also could be a antenna for someone with HOA rules that dont allow antennas . just replace the chicken wire and pvc verticle with a tuned peice of 1 1/2 inch conduit and stick a bird house on top of it and no one would ever know .

nice job sir :)
 
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Cool Homer! Great idea. Very good performance also.

I plan to build mine this weekend. Been busy with that yagi.


Rick
 
Thanks, guys. I just wanted to do something within the rules, but with a bit of believability. I think it is fairly wide-banded, too.

The parts of the rules that guided my choice:

. . . most unique homebrew 1/4 wave ground plane . . .

made of anything, but must be resonant on 27 MHz . . .

photos posted and must be used to both transmit and receive at least once . . .

built either by yourself or with helpers, but you have to make it.
Click to expand...

There were four guys present when I finished it up (took 15 minutes to throw together) and hooked the coax clamps onto it. They laughed and took cell phone photos of it with me when I got the radio checks from the drivers our on the I-540 at around 1:00 AM last night. It was a lunch break project.
 
Thanks-- I did post the results of the tuning but I thing everybody's gotten tired of that thread. I'm shooting for this weekend getting the shack moved and coax routed into the house.


Rick
 
RickC. said:
Thanks-- I did post the results of the tuning but I thing everybody's gotten tired of that thread. I'm shooting for this weekend getting the shack moved and coax routed into the house.


Rick
Click to expand...

I saw that post. What I wanted to hear about, although I know there are many who dispute that whether the antenna talks and receives is an adequate proof of its worth, is the kind of contacts it's earning for you. So I await the on air testing you'll give it when you get your move done.
 
testing isnt an easy thing , conditions can change . when i went from my 1/4 wave homebrew to the 5/8 wave homebrew there was a very noticable difference in both tx and rx . i could hear folks i coulnt hear befor and i could talk to people barefooted that befor i had to use extra power to make the contact . folks gave reports of zero to four s-units more signal on their s-meters . but s-meters are terribly innacurate and about the only thing they can be used for is determining that more or less signal being recieved on that particular station , but not how much more . but we like to have some sort of number for a reference so we do the best we can with what we got .

what i found to be the most telling from my experience was comparing my recieve to other folks around me that befor had impressed me with their ears since they could hear folks locally that i couldnt when using the 1/4wgp . but with the 5/8 i could hear %95+ of what they could . i do think raising my feedpoint/antenna some could have helped that and a better attachment of my ground radials could have helped some too . i intend to do both of those things with the new ground element plan .
 
Understood, and fair enough, thanks.

I've left my 20m dipole up and have an Antron I can use for a comparison antenna on 10m, so I can do some A/B comparison. It'll still be anecdotal tests though. There just happens to be a 10m beacon about a mile from my house so that should help with an idea of f/b on 10. For 20 there's the dipole, but also my notes and memory of the other 2 element yagi and the 20m Moxon I had up. What I expect is similar forward gain and front to side ratio as those two, but a better f/b than the other yagi on 20.

I've already had some surprises though.

Started work on the ground plane today.


Rick
 
Unfortunately, this photo of me with the chicken wire antenna is very blurry (not my shooting). It was taken by a co-worker on my lunch break when I threw the antenna together. The coax runs to my SUV hooked to the DX88HL. I look a little shabby myself. . .
 

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HomerBB said:
Here is an entry:
1/4 wave GP made of chicken wire. The poultry wire is wrapped around a 4 inch waste pipe. The counterpoise is also made of poultry wire.

The antenna works. Where it is sitting in the photo the SWR is 1:4.1 on 27.185. I received and spoke to a trucker on channel 19.
Last night with the antenna sitting on a concrete drive I had a SWR of 1:2.1 on 26.695, 1:2.1 on 27.185, and 1:3.1 on 27.405.

I spoke with local drivers last night on it and I also spoke with Ontario, Canada via skip on 27.385lsb.

The two lapping pieces of fencing that comprise the counterpoise are each 8' x 2' long and wide, and the vertical ended up at 7' long to achieve this SWR. I believe it is possible to flatten the SWR to 1:0.1 by trimming the length of the vertical a little more.
As can be seen I've incorporated a coax choke to remove the coax from acting as the antenna. Coax isolation was important to me in order to show the antenna is the poultry wire only. Note the stand is plywood and a floor flange. Cost of materials - $21.00
Click to expand...

A paltry $21?? Or is that "poultry"? (Sorry for the fowl pun.) (No, I'm not.)
 
Last day of the contest. I was hoping that all who wished to join the fun had gotten the time to place an entry.
Did you get one done, Rick?
 

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