This is essentially an upgrade of project 7
Airband Dipole . I thought the results from that roughly built, simple,"thrown together" Dipole were encouraging enough to build something more permanent. Once again, the materials were cheap : a 3 way junction box, 1 metre length of aluminium tubing, 8 cm of old nylex garden hose and silicon sealant.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOov1v6_7K1pP_Mtxf9i8nIaevo2X_GJpnGKRH9nBjKYrYqrtmVBVoskbKjp_Q3YfPabnvmkTSj06h4B64qwnmcONMg9MuB9QYVwPUs_GmMXhaQWejVf6-okDNrjSk0oQUYue-g1xHw6Y/s320/101_2297.JPG) |
Hose sections used as packing |
The tubing came as 1 m length so i cut that in half. The tubing does not fit snugly into the "T-piece" so some packing is required. In this case, 2 bits of old garden hose cut into 4 cm sections and then cut down the middle, opened up and pushed onto the tubing which then fits nicely into the box. The bits of excess hose are then trimmed off.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI05Lol9GE1encorvfvpgH7NDxarLNlbC-vk_CqUTi2ORs5JDRhNAdNiZr69OHZ5Fx0uW2t-uMb42NcNFIt-xpO00pHs29RP9_di4lL8T1Y_T7mhy-yFAL_ZLTr7_yeec5y_eOuyZ0vs8/s320/101_2299.JPG) |
Packing trimmed and holed drilled |
After that, the holes are drilled for the coax fittings. The standard nuts, bolts, washers and auto-electric crimped type connectors are used. The box cover plate is screwed back on, and silicon sealant is applied just about everywhere.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvFc_R8nOeMSuASILusAYr-bVBjPHpZTOsimvACBrhc_a20g3V50NJiK9CEr2jUAHa_ME70GQQX9PWfHNTodepDqqZcvZiCrbEzhpYJb5NacpEJlAx8_xtLZTFZ9aeG3DPEKiWTBR19_s/s320/101_2300.JPG) |
co-ax fitted |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh065r9SORkeddocHl9S4BbCNR_EUUL0X-M8ELLSKhnjk8bmr5Znjr7391MdqPxVFpP3orKNTkuwf3VsZwp0CQVb770YH1m-iborsWaYY8a0bGsnNiTbrWdjekk_by8q7EpIfdPINh5wrU/s320/101_2301.JPG) |
cover replaced |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiifjSpa9f5L8vnAZg8AcXLuyIoc0V2e_VKERZywi3Nbq-akINzUVkbKUo8TSRdpbUGqQ_p1Re8HEi2bH8xv98bUl5uTL7-76C-r4MsrBgS7wulf0cagnpQ72qg_Z62iRZRK310UoDSS2o/s320/101_2302.JPG) |
mounted |
Once that had cured, it was mounted in place of my weather station which despite being guaranteed to be made of U.V. resistant plastic, is falling to pieces after 5 years in the aussie sun. This time the antenna is mounted a wave length away from the mast which i noticed is the practice used on commercial VHF antennas.
Unsurprisingly, this gem of an antenna performs far better than its predecessor. I have really enjoyed the progress of these 2 builds. It started as in idea i saw on the web, then to a rough prototype for proof of concept and now the final build. A very simple, top performing antenna build, enjoyable from start to finish.