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tight buget base antenna

B

bioman

Active Member
Nov 13, 2005
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reading,pa
well i made a deal with dillionbuilt on his galaxy melaka so im gonna have me a base station here at the house

looking for an EXTREMELY buget friendly base station antena

my roof is about 35' high <flat roof> and i can go up maybe another 10-15 foot

i live in a row house so lack of TVI is extremely important to me

right now i have a 16gauge 4'X8' sheet of steel on my roof with a mag mount and a SS102"

i get out ok with it but thats it.....just ok

i cant help but think a REAL base antenna 10 or 15' higher will do wonders for my signal

needs to be VERY "wife-friendly" as far as costs go

although im sure theyre GREAT antennas the buget just cant stand a 10-K for example

i REALLY need to stay under 100 bucks shipped

as i said LOW TVI so im guessing a fiberglass stick like the imax is out also...... i just can not get it high enough

so im pretty much down to the skylab from c o p p e r

anybody have any thoughts??

thanx
scott
 

Scott,
Good news and bad news. The antenna in your link will probably out perform your present antenna (the good news). Don't expect a world of difference though (the bad news part), and certainly not anything like 7 dB of gain. At least, not unless your present antenna has a negative gain factor, and I sort of doubt that.
There's lots of 'double-speak' in that antenna's ad, which is the nicest way I can think of to put it. I certainly can't blame you for wanting to be 'frugal', but there's 'frugal, and then there's 'frugal', you know? Good luck.
- 'Doc
 
maco v 5/8 would be the best for low tvi and under $100 shipped. the best way to fight tvi is with a quality low pass filter and keeping the power levels down and NOT clipping or bypassing the limiter.

the maleka's were a decent radio. they sound pretty good and are easy to hook up a frequency counter to, they suffer from bad power supplys but for under $175 new they were tough to beat.
 
Why not build a dipole? You can make them rather stealthy and they work VERY well. Not a "Double Bazooka" or any other such; just a conventional half-wave dipole.

It won't have 7 dBd (or dBi) gain, of course, but neither does that toy vertical in the link.
 
Carl said:
maco v 5/8 would be the best for low tvi and under $100 shipped. the best way to fight tvi is with a quality low pass filter and keeping the power levels down and NOT clipping or bypassing the limiter.

the maleka's were a decent radio. they sound pretty good and are easy to hook up a frequency counter to, they suffer from bad power supplys but for under $175 new they were tough to beat.
Click to expand...

i second that.

here take your pick of these 3.
i like the top choice the best. CLICK HERE
 
I run the Maco V58 and it is the best antenna I have used.

I have not tried the Sigma 5/8, but it looks similar and might do just as well.

I also have to echo what Beetle says...a Dipole can be built for less than breakfast at Starbucks. If I went this route, I would build an inverted V with the feed as high as I could get it.

And the final qualification, don't expect miracles no matter what you choose, but you can certainly improve on what you have.
 
i know im not gonna see 7DBs lol or 5 or any kind of DRASTIC improvement....im just kinda looking to upgrade what i got a little bit without spending an arm or a leg on <wifes words> "my toys"

i used to play with car stereos in my yyounger days so im well versed in "advertisment speak "LOL

you guys have me intriuged on the home built.................

any links?? for stuff??

stealth doesnt matter to me within reason..................

i DO live in a "historic district" of the city tho so nothing that would be TOO obvious from ground level <3 full storys with an as mentioned flat roof>

the maco does look alwfully nice tho although

i could maybe try to squeeze that out of my "toy"buget

especially if i can find a used freq counter for the melaka

i have like 100-125 in the toy buget right now

was hoping to buy a new antenna ,base mic <ebay> and a freq counter <ebay again>

thanx
scott
 
if you do decide to get a maco antenna get it from tony at palco electronics, or save a few bucks and get it from his ebay he's under whale of a deal on ebay, hes cheaper than anyone with great shipping rates. ive picked up a few 3 and 4 element beams from him off there for friends and hes great to deal with.
 
what do you "homebuilt" guys think of this one???

http://www.geocities.com/n2uhc/dipole.html

and this calc??? http://www.g4nsj.co.uk/calc.shtml

let me see if ive got this straight

for an inverted "V" i want the center feed point as high a possible with the "outriggers" hanging down right??

do i want to set it up so the outriggers are kicked off of my pole? if so how far?

is this gonna do me any better than what i am running now?

any particular kind of wire??

thanx
scott
 
Scott,
One of the nice things about an inverted 'V' is that the amount of 'droop' can control the input impedance, SWR, of the antenna. The idea is to cut it to the length for the frequency/channel you use the most, string it up sort of horizontal and then vary the droop of the legs till the SWR is as low as it'll go (anything 1.5:1 or better). The angle between the two legs should be greater than about 100 - 110 degrees, sort of. Any less than that isn't going to be of any benifit to you. It ought to be as high above the roof as is practical for you (that also gives more 'dangle' room). Each leg/side of the dipole ought to be the same length. The size of wire used to make it isn't critical at all, so whatever you happen to have enough of will work just fine. You'll need at least one insulator for the center. Nylon cord on the ends are pretty good insulators, unless you just happen to have a couple more laying around. (Not that I'd ever do such a thing... but the plastic rings from a 6-pack of Coke make pretty good insulators too!)
Dipoles are pretty simple to make and cheaper than almost anything else you can find. They do work. Want it to be vertically oriented? Hang it from one end in a tree.
- 'Doc
 
Scott - that link to the dipole looks pretty good as far as how he built it using the SO-239 connector for the coax. The formula on that link (234/Freq) is the standard one, which usually results in an antenna just a bit too long, which is better than one that's too short.

All installations are different, so it's really impossible to present a formula that will give you the absolute length you'll need. Build it, put it up, check SWR, lower it, adjust length, put it back up and check SWR again...sometimes repeating. This is where a 259B pays for itself handsomely!

As I said, the antenna cut per the formula will likely be too long, and you'll be tempted to cut a little off it. DON'T GIVE IN TO TEMPTATION!! ;) Just fold the ends back on themselves, a couple inches on EACH end, and put a nylon ty-rap/zip tie or two on to hold the folded end in place. That way, if you shorten it too much you can unfold some of what you folded rather than soldering on some more.

Experimentation is what radio's all about! Marconi was an experimenter, and he did okay.
 
im also looking hard at the vertical gain antenna on the link FL provided

looks alot like Wolf Radios antennas which ive heard nothing but good things about

the aluminum pipe and copper tubing shouildnt be a problem for me to put my hands on.....my nephew is a plumber

what do you guys think of this design??

would it work better than the 1/2 wave dipole?

any REAL gain out of it?

Bettle....what is a 259B?

like i said i can mount the antenna 10 or 15' higher than the roof.....

i can play with the heighth a bit and maybe go 5-6' off of my roof with the base of a 20 foot antenna

i cant build a 20' tower and THEN mount an antenna on it tho.....well except for maybe a "wire" antenna like the dipole you guys are suggesting

im going to be mounting it to the chimney in the center of our "shared" roof......you guys who have or have had row homes know where i mean

too many trees etc right by the house in the back yard to even consider building a "tower"......plus its just not in the buget

great suggestions so far tho guys.....

keep em coming

scott
 
Scott,
Yes, you should get some gain over what you're using now. That is a '5/8' wave antenna, the ring thingy is a matching network.
- 'Doc
 

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