Antenna Install

My father-in-law helped me install 4 antennas.

We were lucky that the back side of the wall in the bonus room was unfinished. It made it easy to mount the box and run the cables into the attic. It was interesting to me that my father-in-law didn't use a lot of fancy, single-purpose tools. He scored the drywall with an exacto knife and did all his cable striping with his pocket knife.

He had made the 2M quarter wave ground plane antenna some time ago. He brought the PFC pipe and just trimmed it to fit. He also made the termination fixture from aluminium angle he had in his workshop.

He had some insulators laying around that he gave me for the HF antennas. He pulled the wire from his collection of random bits he has acquired over the years. We went to the ARRL Handbook (1999 Edition) and got the formula to calculate the lengths for the dipoles on the three bands. It was simple math (468 divided by the frequency to get the length of the antenna), but it was neat to do the calculation along with the hands-on work.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Ham
• Radio
• Half-wave
• Dipole
• Antenna
• Quarter
• Wave
• Ground
• Plane
• Atenna

[murrij]

Can your father-in-law come over to the Augusta area and lend me a hand? :-)

[BrickOLore]

@murrij That might be a little far. If you can hook up with the local ham clubs, there are usually people that love to help with projects like this.

[fdx183]

Very nice video...I have been searching various websites, "youtube", for a multiband antenna for my attic due to restrictions (HOA)...

I have about a 35ft run W to E in the attic with "heavy tile" roof and stucco walls in a condo type building...I am planning to use 450ohm ladder line with MFJ 969 Versa Tuner II..I will be operating QRP of less than 30 watts for PSK on the various amateur bands. I am thinking of using 2 "slinky's" to expand the length of each side.

[BrickOLore]

@fdx183 Thanks. I need to come up with something for bands beyond VHF and 10,15, & 20. Good luck with your install!

[nighthawk2u]

Where did you get the wall plate with (2) SO-239 connectors installed? Did you buy it or make it?If you bought it, where did you purchase this product?

[BrickOLore]

@nighthawk2u My father-in-law made it. He bought a blank faceplate at Lowe's. He had the connectors, but I'm sure you could get them at any ham fest or HRO. He drilled a couple of holes in the faceplate and there are two parts of the SO-239 that just screw together to hold it securely on both sides of the plate.

Thanks for watching.

[hydromorph1965]

Sounds like myself, Brick! Too many of one thing, with none of the other! You seem to get ahead of yourself too, don't you! lol! I guess we have to get things in order. I'm an enthusiast as well!

[nighthawk2u]

Thank you for the reply.

[BrickOLore]

@buzzatronica You are most welcome. There isn't a lot of detail in the video, so if you have questions I'd be happy to make up an answer (or more likely ask my father-in-law/elmer for some more info.)

[buzzatronica]

hey thanks for posting this video. I am trying to do the exact same thing in my attic. your video REALLY helps quite a bit. 73