TGIF ~ Make Your Own 2 Meter Antenna ~

Hmmm...complicated for nothing and a few points that were not made that will affect the performance.
1 - dipole antennas are unbalanced and coax cable is balanced. This antenna should require a balun, but as 2 meter is generally low wattage, it MAY not make a difference unless you are putting 50 watts or more into it.
2 - The coax should be brought away from the antenna at a 90 deg. angle for at least 1 wave length.
Both of the above points will cause a lot of the power sent to the antenna right back down the coax feedline, reducing the amount of power sent out, and possibly damaging the transceiver.
3 - a simple ground plane, quarter wave antenna can be made with an so-239 connector ($1.29) and some scrap electrical wire (5 pieces at 20 inches).
I made one like this in 20 minutes and hit repeaters 70+ km away at 5 watts.
4 - vertical dipole antennas send the signal skyward at an angle...great for HF like 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10 meter which are all sky wave, but 2 meter is a ground wave...radiating the signal skyward makes little to no sense. Mount this antenna horizontally and run the coax straight down for better performance.
try this one instead...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFp8CYLfq0c

Thanx Denob...I know who I am going to ask now for all the questions regarding Shortwave radio. I haven't got one yet and no one around here anymore that I know of has one to ask. All the trees and rock here don't help it become a priority as yet, but I'm getting there....

I just found that idea walking around the net one night....

I'd love it if you put a list together about things to look for and crap not to buy, etc.....save us walking roads you already travelled!

Mr. P just made a buddy what is really a receive-only but could be a super LLLOOOWWW LOW LOW low-power-transmit antenna out of a wire coat hanger, coax connector, and a mount made out of 2 levels of tin from cut-open cans. Like, really, some screws on the cans, cut and straighten the wire hanger, solder to the connector, screw coax to connector, plug in, roll and receive.

The thing about a lot of these, and some of the others out there (like above), is that they are very, very, very dependent upon a powered repeater.
The second one down on this list has several shapes for fast, easy antennas that can be made pretty inexpensively.
http://www.arrl.org/your-first-antenna
(pull out from the list, Boy Scout possible: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/ab18-16.pdf )
Here's another low-skill, low-cost version: http://www.kb6nu.com/21-things-to-do-build-an-antenna/
Boy Toy found a "2M backpacking yagi" on YouTube and keeps it in my truck now. (Grrr...) http://www.how2createwealth.com/UduDXMoneyLSvOLf/Coat-Hanger-2-Meter-Yagi-Antenna.html

You can do a lot with plain, simple wire, too, in a loop around the attic or running around the inside of a gutter if it's insulated, with the little ceramic things to attach it to cord and sling it between trees, or using plastic hangers to run a ladder of insulated wire straight up a tree (where it really does not stick out as much as expected).

Directionality control and power tolerance is super important if you're hoping for non-LOS xmit/receive and atmo skips in a world without power or with controlled repeaters, and that's something a lot of the inexpensive projects don't allow for and some of the prepper fiction books tend to mislead about (JWR among the most popular of the authors guilty of not finding a story device to allow for HAM comms in mountainous terrain).

Well, I've only made aircraft antennas for fm/am radios in the past and I do like the price of these ones too. I will make one for my scanners for now because they don't pick up much at present unless the transmission is close.

I'm going to think of something difficult for Mrs. P. one of these days....maybe I can show her how to bag a moose with your bumper...it works well here but sometimes the driver dies... 😮 (there's always a down side to that trick,eh?) 🙄

I'm going to think of something difficult for Mrs. P. one of these days....maybe I can show her how to bag a moose with your bumper...it works well here but sometimes the driver dies... 😮 (there's always a down side to that trick,eh?) 🙄

I'm not all that, boss man. And I have a long, long list of stuff I don't do:
-Harvest bunnies, ducks or baby goats that we've fed and taken care of (wild bunnies are yummy, nice bunnies you feed and care for are friends and should not be stew; chickens and geese are jerks)
-Engines. Period. I barely check and add my own fluids and change my own tires and throw on offroading non-skids or chains on my own tires. If boy toy does not leap to it, all other issues (and some patches, in foul weather) revert to the nice people with lifts. Small motors and engines are expected to work as ordered, work after being rest to whatever "off" configuration is appropriate and a prayer has been offered, or expected to respond to foul jarhead language. Otherwise, they shall be winched into a pickup and left with a note or left someplace Mr. P cannot help but at least move them out of the way (sometimes while listening to the blue-laced description of how it responded to me just doing it like always)
-Electricity. Period. I am now more familiar with what special electricity/energy word or words I need to look at to ensure the rechargable battery will actually power the correct device, but I am a "hold this here" "shine that light here" "tell me when it goes off" "flip this button when I yell" "brow mop please" electrician's assistant.
-Sew. I can do it, barely, but it's super-duper ugly, guaranteed.
-Pressure canners - I own one, and it's at a buddy's house because I can go there, offer brow mops, cut and chop, and then play cards, and if it does somehow blow up (I know, I know - "phobia") my pets and lover are safe, and it's her roof and kitchen or her porch and little brick grill + oven thingy.
-Pace count - Just can't do one anymore, my walking is too inconsistent; added to: I'm a terrible judge of distance, like, in between things that can be measured with a dollar bill and "about a football field, but [more/less] that the endzone" there is my pickup truck as a measuring stick. I have to write stuff down, for real, and for-real use the oober tape measure or the wheely gig or the GPS.
-Work any math that requires geometry or more than a single variable, and just forget it if there is a variable raised to an exponent of more than 2, or God forbid fractional exponents. (I live with a HAM geek; I hold stuff for a HAM geek; I have queried my HAM geek when stuff came up along the way; my father set up my SSB; that stuff falls to others).
-I'm only a so-so, middle average shot with either action or long-distance precision, and my penchant for head shots while hunting was to limit mangled or lead-shot/blood-shot meat loss, and because for a long time it was easier to remember which parts of which skulls is vulnerable compared to learning the 4-12 angles and heart-lung shots, with a little more windage leeway than the two spine shot angles I'm willing to take.
-Learn anything from just reading, or learn anything from just seeing it done once and doing it once myself - This is a thick skull and many brain cells were killed along the way. It takes a lot to get stuff into my head.
-Major construction is not my forte. If it can't be done with a dremel and saws-all and hammer or screwdriver, it's out of my league.
-Navigate by the stars (or even pick out constellations, no matter how many times they're pointed out to me)
-Correctly convert UTM true north (I can usually get close, but I require terrain maps and landmarks for honing in; very painful on several occassions, and the farther away from boot camp I get, the less able I am to whip out the math and plot the fix)
-Remember the stupid calculation from rainfall inches to gallons without looking at a notebook and doing the conversion in a long, painful string (and it was part of a job, even)
-Accurately use a sightline level for the entire run of a creek and floodplain - 1 mile or 100 yards, there will be at least 1 snafu that requires going back
-Use Excel without explicit directions, let alone to develop my own formulas

I realistically just grow, do a little foraging, have some limited livestock exposure, and did some hunting as a teen and again for a couple of years when I exclusively ate meats I'd hunted or knew had been raised and individually, respectfully harvested (when I had time and a fully functioning body). I'm stubborn enough that since I can't really spot and stalk effectively anymore (don't want to sit in a stand, even if it's not over a feed lot) and didn't like the hassle of getting licensed in our current state (I only expected to be here a couple of years), I just haven't been out in almost a decade. And as the years go by, I find myself thrilling to the end of autumn, getting tingly on those low, cloudy duck and goose days, and missing it more and more. I still watch for game signs and delight in pointing out which creature probably nibbled this trunk, which likely broke that branch, beaver or deer damage, but I can't seem to make myself get over the hump to go be part of that cycle again.

There's all kinds of stuff that stumps me. Please don't let me mislead you there. 🙂

😀 😀 Man, I can't wait for the wife to wake from her afternoon nap cause I haf'ta show her that last thread. 😆 😆 you had me LMAO all the way thru. Cloudy (wife) had a girlfriend she rode bikes with (yup, she has her own hog) that dumped her new boyfriend because she said he couldn't pass her a 9/16" wrench when asked while she was working under her 1 ton dually. 🙄 ...I gotta admit that is kinda an attractive feature in a woman....logic... 😎

Cloudy is full blood Soto native from Calgary. When I first brought her here, she was definitely an "Urbanite Indian"...I'm still trying to get her to come hunting (just so I can bag whatever walks out) but she always opts out at the last. Yet she has 3 girlfriends who go hunting without the men around....(and that's a rare thing even here)!

I taught Cloudy how to fish and later how to clean them. Now she kicks my a$$ at both things. She uses her native rights and catches 2-3 times her limit...but before you get pissed off...she does the native thing and takes almost all of our fish and gives it to the native elders who are no longer able to fish themselves(as there is a dilapidated Seniors home for the natives and then a much nicer one here for the other folks). As I've said, folks around here often talk and many don't know the native ways even though they too have spent most of their lives here. Some have commented when seeing her fishing, but others who know her usually try to explain.

And when you visit a native, they often try to give you something when you leave (yes, just like in the Dances with Wolves ending). Cloudy does that far too often too 😥 ( 😮 😕 I've lost alot of good $hit with that trick and little to show in return either) 😮 😯

before you get pissed off...

Never tickled my thoughts. Mom's 2nd-gen too dilute for voting rights, but grandma is in a little community near a Res/OTSA (displaced Cherokee line), mingled with and still has friends and is active there, and I've been lucky enough to watch and help after out-of-season allowed hunts and fishing runs, and extra sustenance catches. Fighting the poverty, apathy, alcohol, domestic abuse, and spousal/date rapes in the newer generations, especially, and trying to get the younger gen's to embrace the positive points of the heritage is near and dear to my heart.