pics of progress on the homebrew 5/8

[BOOTY MONSTER]

ive got what i can on it done for the moment , just need a dry day and some help taking the homebrew 1/4wgp down and putting the new one up . gonna pull the ground radials off the 1/4 and use them on the 5/8 . and of course ill have to tune it after the grounds are on .
ill be using the ground wires and X off of this 1/4wgp on the 5/8 .

the ground radials/wires and the coax shield will attach to the bottom of the tuning ring on the single bolt .

i used noalox on the tube sections and between the radiator and tuning ring behind the 2 bolts on the verticle . those 2 bolts give a super tight and very solid connection and the ends make a nice little saddle for the u clamp to rest in and keep the antenna from sliding down......just in case the pressure treaded 2x4 shrinks enough to allow that .
i also used some plastic tubing on the U clamps so they wouldnt be a radiating part of the antenna .

for a temporary tuning place i put a 2 foot 2 inch pve pipe in a hole and im using a 10 foot 1 1/2 inch peice of pvc for a mast . pull it out for adjusting vswr and stick it back in to see what it is .

the center coax conductor will be held in place on the tuning ring with a wooden clothes pin for checking and setting vswr and then a hole will be drilled in the ring at best tuning place and and a ring terminal and SS nut and 2 bolt with a lockwasher will secure it . every nut and bolt has a flat washer and a lock washer .

the verticle is 22 1/2 feet tall and theres 6 inches of over lap on each section . theres just a simple rubber cap on the top . i do expect the vswr to possibly rise a point or 2 from tuning the feedpoint 9 feet off the ground to 23-24 feet in the air , but if i can get to 1.2 or less on the ground that wont be a issue in the real world .
a few more pics ....

with the verticle not fully telescoped it about 8 - 8 1/2 feet tall .

seems like its taking me forever :Frustrated: but it is comming along :yes: .
i hope to have it up and talking in the next few days . ill post a few more pics with it in the air and the ground elements installed when its up .

if you see where ive made any mistakes let me know !! :Laugh:

 

[Robb]

Q: Are you using a field strength meter to see how well it is radiating? Or are you going to depend upon reports from friends in your area to tell you how many S-units you are hitting them with? Materials look decent enough. I take it that the ring is replacing the need for a matching coil? Is a balun going to built for a part of this? Inquiring minds want to know...

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

just a vswr meter (astatic 700) and local reports . no balun but i will be using a coax choke about 9 feet below the feedpoint . the ring is for matching , similar to hjow a maco 58 tunes but done according to wizardos measurements .
Tips and tricks on how to build your own CB Antennas.

i wish i had access to a mfj analizer , but nobody has one

 

[Highlander_821]

That looks great so far. What a nice, simple design. I bet it will work very well for you.

 

[CDX-007]

Did you use a 6' piece of aluminum for your ring match?

Did it end up about 16.5" in diameter?

A friend of mine built one from that drawing but couldn't get his swr down. He asked me for help so I moved the radial system from downward/diagonal up to 90* horizontal and it then came down to 1.2:1, X=7 without further adjustment.

 

[SR385]

Looks good and solid. What I've found is that if I stick an antenna on my temporary mast which is just a 5 foot piece of pole lashed to my fence and tune it for best SWR, when I put it up in the air, it just gets better.

Hopefully you'll have the same results.

What CDX said is true, the angle of the counterpoise will affect the feed point impedance. So tune your match to the best spot and if it isn't close to 1:1, play with the angle of the counterpoise radials.

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

thanks guys . i got the vswr down to 1.4 with the verticle at 23 feet . the ring diameter is about 17 inches and i do plan to change the ground elements to horozontal aluminium tubing over the next few months . heres a link to a thread here on the temporally finished antenna with pics and results from locals .

http://www.worldwidedx.com/home-brew-mods/38300-64-homebrew-temporally-finished-up-pics.html

irate pirate over at quackshack wanted to build a copy of the wizardoz 5/8 a while back but couldnt get the swr steady because of the wire moving even in a light wind , so he used a coil wraped on a former and did some other changes and his version performed nicely for him . using the 1 inch x 1/8 inch thick aluminum strip instead of wire i dont have that problem , plus i figgured if i did i could add some sort of brace to the back of the 2x4 and have the ends attach to the inside of the tuning ring to make it pretty damn close to rock solid if it needed it ........ but it hasnt .

it was and is a learning experience . i wish i had an easy way to raise and lower it myself . id love to be able to play with different ground plane angles and lengths with it as well as no groundplane elements at all except for metal mast , kinda like a .64 ringo or like the imax does .

id really like to put a 10 foot pressure treated 6x6 four feet in the ground . ive got several ideas about how to redneck engineer a hinged plate for the bottom of the mast and a bracket up top to securely hold the mast . i think using 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 inch conduit to get about a 19 feet feedpoint would be effective enough for playing with antennas and they could be simply laid down if a big storm comes up . just thinking of an easy way to entertain myself .

 

[bigred222]

bootymonster i give you lots of credit for taking on a project like this. VERY COOL. what antenna were you using before this. how big of a difference did it make you should put them up at the same height and really do a signal report for both boxes. get a cheap antenna switch like the workman one.
oh and i hope your final install wont use RG8x like i think i saw in the pics. not trying to be a dick. but i use 8x and hate it. lmr 400 will be going up with the maco 5000 i hope to get or even better stuff for the burban im looking for.

 

[Robb]

BootyMon:

Where does the ground wire from the coax go; it's not clear from the picture.
The PL-239 is hooked up to the loop; and the center wire goes to a tuning point on the same loop as well? Cool!

BTW - Didya get that THING I sent ya?

 

[HomerBB]

Your antenna looks great. I thought about doing one of these, and may yet. At the time I chose to do it with a loading coil instead. I recorded my effort here on the forum at: My first attempt to build a 5/8 wave homemade

I had a great time doing it, and got a lot of great feedback from the forum.
As I said, I really like the look of your work, and feel the lure of another experiment watching yours unfold.

 

[HomerBB]

BootyMon:

Where does the ground wire from the coax go; it's not clear from the picture.
The PL-239 is hooked up to the loop; and the center wire goes to a tuning point on the same loop as well? Cool!

Doesn't appear to have any coax hooked up yet on his photos, but it appears from the drawing that it will go to the lowest end of the tuning loop where it connects to the board it's mounted on.

 

[byder]

base

ive got what i can on it done for the moment , just need a dry day and some help taking the homebrew 1/4wgp down and putting the new one up . gonna pull the ground radials off the 1/4 and use them on the 5/8 . and of course ill have to tune it after the grounds are on .
ill be using the ground wires and X off of this 1/4wgp on the 5/8 .

the ground radials/wires and the coax shield will attach to the bottom of the tuning ring on the single bolt .

i used noalox on the tube sections and between the radiator and tuning ring behind the 2 bolts on the verticle . those 2 bolts give a super tight and very solid connection and the ends make a nice little saddle for the u clamp to rest in and keep the antenna from sliding down......just in case the pressure treaded 2x4 shrinks enough to allow that .
i also used some plastic tubing on the U clamps so they wouldnt be a radiating part of the antenna .

for a temporary tuning place i put a 2 foot 2 inch pve pipe in a hole and im using a 10 foot 1 1/2 inch peice of pvc for a mast . pull it out for adjusting vswr and stick it back in to see what it is .

the center coax conductor will be held in place on the tuning ring with a wooden clothes pin for checking and setting vswr and then a hole will be drilled in the ring at best tuning place and and a ring terminal and SS nut and 2 bolt with a lockwasher will secure it . every nut and bolt has a flat washer and a lock washer .

the verticle is 22 1/2 feet tall and theres 6 inches of over lap on each section . theres just a simple rubber cap on the top . i do expect the vswr to possibly rise a point or 2 from tuning the feedpoint 9 feet off the ground to 23-24 feet in the air , but if i can get to 1.2 or less on the ground that wont be a issue in the real world .
a few more pics ....

with the verticle not fully telescoped it about 8 - 8 1/2 feet tall .

seems like its taking me forever :Frustrated: but it is comming along :yes: .
i hope to have it up and talking in the next few days . ill post a few more pics with it in the air and the ground elements installed when its up .

if you see where ive made any mistakes let me know !! :Laugh:

excellentr work !,i am trying to improve the base!

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[2RT307]

Great to see you doing this work, Bootymonster. It's what radio is all about! Very nice job, thanks for posting the pics.

73,
RT307

 

[BOOTY MONSTER]

thanks , but you should see Homerbb's antennas !

 

[HomerBB]

Thanks, Booty, but Brett has been here at my place a few times.
He took one home with him the last visit.