stupid question...

[Twink]

ok... my buddy has a 102" lying around.... how can i use it as a base antenna? there's a light pole by my apartment i could temporarily mount it to, but i'm not sure if it's grounded.... is there a way i could turn that 102 into a vertical dipole? i'm looking for a good base antenna for my apartment really, and i'm not happy at all with my dipole...

[Circuit Breaker]

Whether the light pole is grounded or not isn't a problem because grounding isn't what you need to make the antenna work. You need the second half of the antenna...and simply grounding it doesn't provide that second half. You can easily make a vertical dipole out of two 102" whips...what you would end up with would essentially be an Antron A-99...just less visible.

[Twink]

how would i use two 102" to make a verticale dipole? what would be in between them? i've got no smarts with antennas, you'll have to act like you're explaining it to a third grader

[Circuit Breaker]

Get something similar to this:

[Please login or register to view this link]

You put a 102" whip on each side...one going up and the other going down.

['Doc]

Twink,
There just happens to be a thingy on the market that does what you are thinking about doing. No idea what the name of the thing is, but it combines the mount for two mobile antennas into one. That makes it possible to use two antennas to make a 'small' rotating dipole, a sort of one element horizontal beam. It doesn't have to be mounted horizontally, only if you want to. It's simply a bent metal strap that has a mounting hole for each antenna, and a method of connecting the feed line to those antennas. One antenna mounting 'hole' is insulated like any other mount for a mobile antenna, the other is not insulated. The insulated antenna connects to the center conductor of the feed line. The non-insulated one connects tot he braid of that feed line. And naturally, it has some method of mounting the whole mess to a pole/mast/whatever. The one that I've seen advertised was made of metal, but it can also be made of some kind of strong plastic or other type of insulating material. As long as it insulates one of those whips from 'ground' (or the other half of the completed antenna) it'll work. I have no idea what the price of such a 'doo-hicky' is, but you can bet it isn't going to be a $1.98. And considering the latest prices, depending on your 'scrounging' ability, the whole thing isn't going to be very cheap.

The exact same thing can be done with wire, a couple of insulators, and maybe an SO-239 coax connector. If you bought the whole mess, cost might be something like $10.00, maybe? (I like cheap!) Of course, if it's made from wire, you have to figure out a way to hang the thing from something. Got trees?

In both instances, you are making a 1/2 wave dipole. One is sort of 'limp', the wire one. The other is sort of 'stiff', the one made from the 102" whips. Contrary to popular belief, there's nothing particularly beneficial from using the whips. And there are no 'electrical' benefits from using shortened mobile antennas, in fact they tend to be a bit harder to tune and do NOT perform like a 'full sized' antenna. They are a 'make-do' sort of thingy, if you can't have a 'real' antenna. Bad way of putting it, but true none the less. Oh well.
Does that help any?
- 'Doc

(It may be a 'stupid' question, but just about everyone has had the same question at one time or another. Guess that makes all of us 'stupid', so why worry about it?)

[Twink]

Doc and circuit breaker, you guys are the most helpful guys on this forum that i've met. that device you found circuit is awesome... just what i'm looking for....

but....


i do have a dipole right now, it's just two 9 foot wires attached to a center piece and all that, i got it off ebay. can i use that somehow? could i attach one 9 foot wire to a pole, and fasten that pole to the light post? (i want to get it up as high as i can get it) and what would i do with the other wire? or maybe there's a way i could attach that 102" tot he insulator some how.... i don't know... you guys are the geniuses here.


also, another friend of mine at work said he just stuck a metal pole in the ground and stuck his magnet mount antenna on top of that. would that work with my wilson 1k? i'm betting the dipole would be better though.

['Doc]

If you can hang it from a pole, it ought'a work. That doesn't say how well, but don't expect 'perfect', sort of. The mag-mount on a pole/post can work if you provide it something to use as a counterpoise/ground. Or on top of a metal roof? Got some alumimu, foil? The magnet won't stick to it, but it it's sitting on that foil it can use it electrically. How much foil? Nine feet per leg? Give or take whatever you happen to have? Sit it all on the ground! It'll 'work'. No idea how well, but...
- 'Doc

'Rocket science'? Yeah, so what, if it works?

[Circuit Breaker]

If you can hang the dipole vertically, you'll have omni-directional performance. If you mount it horizontally, you'll be transmitting and receiving mostly in only two directions...AND, you'll be losing 20 dB in cross polarization since most people use vertically polarized antennas...so try to find a way to go vertical with it and it should work fairly well for you.

[jessejamesdallas]

Get something similar to this:

[Please login or register to view this link]

You put a 102" whip on each side...one going up and the other going down.

Now that is a Neat Gizmo! Probably wouldn't be all that hard to fabricate from junk lying around the house either...

[Twink]

well.... i went to my buddys and he showed me that 102"... it's bent in like 2 places, so "f" that. here's are my calculations. I can get two 102" at radio hut for $50, and that neat looking gizmo for $18 plus maybe $15 shipping... that adds to $83.... i called my local cb shop, and he's got an antron 99 for $69..... should i just do that?

[bossman 750]

i have a maco 4 element beam horizontal with a maco 5/8 ten feet above it on a 40 foot tower anybody tell me if theres gonna be any intereference with both antenna .