Hello everyone i just thought that this might be interesting to some of you out there. i go camping alot and usually bring a cb radio but the main problem i had was the antenna. it had to be small enough to fit into a back pack but had to work. so with the help of the internet and my own two cents i came up with a no - ground 1/4 wave antenna.
to build this antenna i used the 108 inches of center conductor from tv cable and some old tent poles. the tent poles stand around 10 feet tall and are mounted to a small tripod with some rope and stakes to keep it still. i then attached the 108 inches of wire to the outside of the poles with some tape. this way it can be collapsed and put into a backpack. Since i didnt want to have to use a ground plane i made a very simple matching network for the antenna.
to make the matching network use a 1 inch pvc pipe and wrap six turns about 4-5 inches long of bare copper ground wire. attach one end of the coil to the antenna and the other to the ground of the coax. then you will need to locate a tuning capacitor out of and old radio. attach the center conductor to one side of the tuning capacitor and solder an alligator clip to the other side. then clip the clip at about 1 turn from the top of the coil and use the tuning capacitor to fine tune the SWR.
After everything was all said and done i was able to achieve an SWR reading of 1.5:1 or less on all the cb channels and channels that were well above and below the cb band.
Just thought this might be interesting to someone out there. 73s
to build this antenna i used the 108 inches of center conductor from tv cable and some old tent poles. the tent poles stand around 10 feet tall and are mounted to a small tripod with some rope and stakes to keep it still. i then attached the 108 inches of wire to the outside of the poles with some tape. this way it can be collapsed and put into a backpack. Since i didnt want to have to use a ground plane i made a very simple matching network for the antenna.
to make the matching network use a 1 inch pvc pipe and wrap six turns about 4-5 inches long of bare copper ground wire. attach one end of the coil to the antenna and the other to the ground of the coax. then you will need to locate a tuning capacitor out of and old radio. attach the center conductor to one side of the tuning capacitor and solder an alligator clip to the other side. then clip the clip at about 1 turn from the top of the coil and use the tuning capacitor to fine tune the SWR.
After everything was all said and done i was able to achieve an SWR reading of 1.5:1 or less on all the cb channels and channels that were well above and below the cb band.
Just thought this might be interesting to someone out there. 73s
