2 metre dipole

Im gonna have a dipole up for 2 metres at home as not used it yet on my multiband radio. Found a few ways of making my own but been looking at a great little centre piece for the antenna and just ordered it today. I found this guy that has used the same thing for cb radio, you could actuallly use it for any band antenna 1/4 wave or 1/2 wave even just using light mobile antenna's, anyway 2 metre will be really cheap to do so here is what it will look like.

http://s3.zetaboards.com/copythat/topic/7407107/1/

Found someone has used the same thing Im going to do but with mobile cb antennas. Take a look its post 37 and post 51, its an interesting article and shows lots of pics http://s3.zetaboards.com/copythat/topic/7407107/1/

What Ive done so far...........


Ok the dipole centre piece came today and I cut down the two stainless steel whips to 20 inches giving me lots to play with should I need to cut it down.
The dipole centre piece was £8 delivered. The whip was £3 for a 4 and a half foot piece which is more that enough to cut in half.




Take note of the plus and minus, the plus will be the top of the antenna and the minus the bottom.






I paid £2 each for the nut connectors that the whips go into.





Thats it altogether, a nice stealthy antenna.



Next I had a bit aluminium squared piece knocking around to fasten the antenna too



Im going to screw it to the fascia board just under the guttering on the right hand corner and see how it performs from there, obviously height is better but lets try it here first as Im not one for climbing a roof lol.



Total spent £15 not bad for a dipole and it should be good against the weather high winds etc.

Ill get some coax today and plugs and gave it a try tomorrow

Got the antenna up today and got a pleasant surprise. To start off with I remembered I had a pole from the old tv antenna so used that rather than drilling the fascia board.





Next drill the wall and get the coax through, mmmmmmmmmmm something has to go wrong as this went straight through hassle free.
So we are now indoors, PL259 soldered on and lets get connected to the analyzer and see what we have.......

Just been on a 2metre net for the first time since I made this antenna and results were good, using between 10 /25 watts got into everyone on there from the 10 watts upto 25 watts, so from South Shields to Bedlington 5/9 Rowans Gill this one was really good as the guy had his antenna in the loft and he was receiving me no problems, 2 mile outside of Durham without a problem as well. I live in a really bad black spot and didnt think the antenna would perform so well. Really pleased with the results and for very little expense and not alot that can go wrong with this small antenna that wouldnt get any problems in the high winds you cannot fault it. So there you have it, if you need a 2 metre antenna then dont buy one thats made to look good and costs lots of money just make one for little money that performs really well.

that is a great antenna did you leave it at 20 inches that swr is good i thaught i would pinch that idea but make one for 70cms and use a antenna switch ,how did you cut or what did you cut the whips with and did you buy all the parts from burtly radio shop well done daryn great antenna

this is a pic of the small dipole i made out of old aluminium legs off a scanner antennait is cut to 19 and a half inches with a swr of 1.5 it works well the center of it was a old ceramic fuse holder out of a old workshop when i finished it i filled the center with hot glue ,if your wondering that is me carivan up me dads place it was sited yearly you can just see the endfed wire it was 165 feet long without a balum and it was good the far right antenna was a old cb one with the inside cut down for the 466 band what we used for the site radios motorola 380 with 118.8 tone in the center one is a 2mtr/70cms and the left one is the good old gp half wave

Another great pic there mate.

I found I had to saw half way through the stainless steel whips before snapping them off, not sure if it was just my pliers not very sharp but god it was tuff trying to just cut through it with them. I didnt leave the antenna that lengh mate, infact I dont the wrong thing, I tried to tune it inside my kitchen, dont ask me why impatience I guess, I cut it down to around 18.5 inches there abouts and thought right time to stop and wait lol, I had it down to 1.7 but when I put it up a height the SWR had dropped even further down ,I wasnt gonna play around it was good to go so left it but next time I would start cutting it from where it is gonna be.

The centre was from ebay and here it is http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DPC-38-DIPOLE-CENTRE-MOBILE-WHIPS-/350538462516?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_SpecialistRadioEquipment_SM&hash=item519db87534 I couldnt get the price down anywhere else and Bev does not stock them.

Everything else was from Bevs place Birtley, his contact details are in the links section on here so you can phone him before you go up there to make sure they are in stock. Tell him where you got the details from please.

If you use the measuring formula Ive put on the exam section about calculating antenna sizes it seems to be pretty right by what size I have made mine although if you are making an antenna for open space then the calculations should be adjusted slightly or just make the length longer as I did.

234 divided by frequency (145 in this case) for a quarter wave antenna is just over 18.13 inches but always add 2 to 3 " to it and cut it down as coax length and buildings etc can alter the SWR

Ok after showing you my home made 2 metre antenna with the parts I bought Ive now found someone selling the exact same ones as mine, £29.90 Rocket Radio http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144-146MHz-2m-Amateur-Radio-Base-Station-Dipole-Antenna-Aerial-NEW-/370607734226?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_SpecialistRadioEquipment_SM&hash=item5649f13dd2

Save your money and make your own as I shown you.

Dont forget you saw it here first.

Excellent post and very intresting Im a member of CT and lots of home brew intrest on there

I couldnt believe how wide banded it was mate, I get out all over without any problems. I would loveantenna projects posted on here. Kev loves his antenna projects.