Homebrew 2 meter Yagi

[KD0GOJ]

Has any one built there own homebrew 2 meter yagi?
I was giving yesterday a 14 ft tv antenna.
I want to dismantle it and use the radials for a homebrew 2 meter
any suggestion or help is welcomed.
Never built my own, total newbie at this
going to start taking apart the antenna

Thanks Scott KD0GOJ

 

[airplane1]

do a search on internet for home brew 2 meter yagi ant.

there is a wealth of info out there.

 

[Blue Jay]

I have one built by a fellow ham (5 element, folded dipole, 300 twin lead, PVC boom) that he gave to me, I have it in the attic for a weather proof antenna. It works better than my J pole at 50' in 5 acres of woods with 80' trees getting to the repeater 14 miles away.

 

[KingCobra_CDX882]

The old tv antenna..
Is not too far off for frequency's of 2 meters..

With a little research...
you can find length of boom.....
spacing of elements..
length of elements..

put it all together...and bam...2 meter antenna..

for myself..
old TV antennas are not long enough a boom to bother using.
Remember Gain is derived mostly from the length of the boom
(slightly perhaps in the elements...by far mostly the boom length)

However..
It makes a good exercise / experiment to make a 2 meter antenna from a old tv antenna

 

[W5LZ]

Can it be done? Sure. The typical TV antenna is larger than a 2 meter antenna so you should have an easier time shortening things rather than lengthening them. I'd give the same advice about doing some research on beams. There are lots of different 'styles', so finding one that suits your purpose shouldn't be that difficult. With a boom length of about 14 feet, I would think you could get at least a 4 - 6 element 2 meter beam out'a that. I think the hardest part would be getting a good match between antenna and feed line. Not impossible by any means, just not super simple. Then again, it all depends on what you may have handy and how bent, folded, or mutilated the various parts of that TV antenna are.
Have fun, that's the whole idea.
- 'Doc

 

[Radio Tech]

Beside the basic dipole the 2 meter antenna is one of the easiest antennas to build. Built plenty of them over the years. For better performance build a quagi. That is a yagi with a quad rear end. Google will show you all the histor so need to re-invent the wheel.

Your local welding supply store should have all the aluminum welding rods you need. they are 3/16 by 36 inch.Lowes has rest of what you need. Cheap to build. Here is a pic of one of my best performing antennas I ever built. It is a wooded boom VHF/UHF quagi long boom. VHF is not to bad but UHF you have to be dead-on your measurments.
This antenna has been up 3 years now.

 

[HiDef]

Nice pic of a nice antenna. I really like the truss there. Good stuff!

 

[Radio Tech]

Thanks HiDef.
It is up at 60 feet. I have talked quite far on 2 meter FM with it. Specially when the band is open.

 

[Mongoose]

I just built this one from schedule 40 pvc and a old tape measure and some clamps

 

[FatHam]

You can get your element lengths & spacing here...
http://www.k7mem.com/Electronic_Notebook/antennas/yagi_vhf_quick.html
I've had very good luck with this calculator using a folded dipole driven element.

 

[midnight special]

i built this antenna back in 1997, it is still up and working great,,, the article gives a lot of good info on recycling tv antennas in to 2 meter yagi antennas


http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/9611034.pdf