Homebrew Co-phased Ground Plane Antennas

[G-Golly Wally]

Post it when you do Wally! Looks like a fun build.

73

Will do!

 

[AudioShockwav]

That's it. Gotta hand it to him. The cans-antenna was a lotta work, and pretty cool.

I was in the chicken wire corner, and you could stuff it full of plastic ivy and set it in the backyard, stealth antenna royal.

73
Jeff

 

[HomerBB]

I was in the chicken wire corner, and you could stuff it full of plastic ivy and set it in the backyard, stealth antenna royal.

73
Jeff

If you're a careful gardener, you could grow real ivy on it. Put the vertical in a bucket, and ground plane in the grass.

 

[G-Golly Wally]

Post it when you do Wally! Looks like a fun build.

73

Yesterday I picked up a few items to build this antenna. Co-phase cable, two mirror mounts, two L- type pl-259 connectors and a double female pl-259 connector.(not pictured)
I have the pipe for the boom, I still need two ss102 whips and some ground radials. Thinking of using ss 102 whips as radials just to make it look more uniform unlike my last homemade ground plane with the old fishing poles holding my radials.

 

[G-Golly Wally]

Well I picked up two SS 102 whips and some stud mounts then this caught my eye. I'm blaming Shadetree mechanic, I couldn't resist the urge! It has a few cosmetic blemishes, but it works and works good. $400 dollars, I don't know if that was a good price, it seemed good to me, so I had to have it. DARN YOU SHADE! He also priced me a 40ft free standing tilt over tower and I know for sure it's a good price. I told him I wanted it too, but give me 3 weeks and I'll hand the money over for the tower when I get back from work. I should have known better than to go to the cb shop with money burning a hole in my pocket.
Now I have to figure out where to hide it before the wife gets home
I figure I'm gonna have to kinda break the ice about this a little at a time

 

[Crawdad]

Just tell her you can heat up dinner with it Wally and you'll be in tall cotton.

 

[G-Golly Wally]

Picked up 4 Wilson 4ft antennas for my ground radials. Started to assemble the co phased antenna but ran into a minor snag, my bolts for the mirror mounts are a tad bit short. So off to True Value tomorrow morning, then things should go together. I'll post pictures, I also have been thinking of how I can spiff up the appearance of that Eagle 500 Amp I bought, I have it planned out in my head, now I just need to make it happen.

 

[G-Golly Wally]

I got the frame built for the co phased antenna, I think I'm gonna hit it with some paint before I go any further.

 

[Dmans]

What did you use for the center bracket on your co-phase boom?

I also have been thinking of how I can spiff up the appearance of that Eagle 500 Amp I bought

I recently used gammaray graphics for the first time on a friends SB-220 restoration after hearing about them for years.

I also refurbished an Eagle 500 for this same guy a few years ago. Details are on the forum.

Good Luck
73
David

 

[G-Golly Wally]

What did you use for the center bracket on your co-phase boom?


I recently used gammaray graphics for the first time on a friends SB-220 restoration after hearing about them for years.

I also refurbished an Eagle 500 for this same guy a few years ago. Details are on the forum.

Good Luck
73
David

Lol, it's a part of a bracket for a pontoon Bimini top, and the support braces are from on old day bed .I put the ends in a vice and bent them how I needed them. I'll have to check out the Eagle 500 refurb

 

[G-Golly Wally]

I got the ground radials on, still need to put the 102s and the coax on,that will have to wait until tomorrow. My wife's birthday was the 7th and mine is today so my daughter is taking us out to eat.

 

[G-Golly Wally]

I couldn't get service when we went out to eat, so I'll try this again. The boom is the top rail from a chained link fence that I cut down to 10ft. The top rail fit perfectly into the Bimini top bracket I used as my center bracket for the boom. It had two holes drilled into it previously, so I measured to find the center of the boom and secured the bracket to the boom with self tapping screws. Where the mast goes into the bracket I used a 3 inch all thread screw and a nylon lock nut to secure the mast to the bracket. The bracket wasn't as sturdy as I needed, so I made support brackets from scrap parts of an old day bed and secured them with self tapping screws. The ground radials are secured with nylon lock nuts hopefully everything will be sturdy enough to withstand the wind we sometimes get here in South Eastern Oklahoma, I guess time will tell.

 

[groundwire]

Wow, all that land and space you have. If you're putting up a tower, why not a big ol beam? Or a full wave loop would be nice dx hammer.

 

[G-Golly Wally]

Wow, all that land and space you have. If you're putting up a tower, why not a big ol beam? Or a full wave loop would be nice dx hammer.

I got a tower in the works, same old boy I bought the eagle 500 from has a 40 ft free standing tower that I plan to buy from him. And a bigger beam is in my future plans. I just thought this antenna was neat, and wanted to build it. I've got the plans for a 4 element quad to build, probably just use my V-quad when I get the tower while I work on the 4 element quad build.

 

[G-Golly Wally]

Got the co phased antenna all together and on a temporary pole, the swr's are 1.4 on channel 1 and 1.7 on channel 40.
Going to tweak on it a little to see if we see can improve them some. No contacts yet, skip was trying to roll here but conditions aren't there yet, over all I'm happy with the results for just completing the project and hooking it up to a radio.