You should! I really enjoyed the build project. It does take some time to setup but if you plan on working the air for a day and have the space - do it! 73
Hello You have a pleasant style of presenting your findings and makings, not as an**l retentive as most ham radio youtubers. Thank you and keep up your posting Fuor thumbs up.
Great informative video. Just a thought regarding the base plate having the ground plane radials and radiating elements so close together. What if you made a second plate for the ground radials and sperate the elements plate 2 or 3 inches on top?
Hey Mike - thanks for watching! I think that's the way DX Commander does it. Not a bad idea. I was trying to keep it down to one piece. At it's current design it performs really well. I get a steady SWR on 40/20 < 1.2:1 and the 10M harmonic is at 2:1. I'm already working on some new designs and will let you know! 73 w0kni
Thank you for making this video and sharing it with all of us! I just found your channel and I subscribed, notifications turned on and thumbs up. Can you elaborate on the radiating elements that you used? It looks like you have connections set up for four different radiating elements? Which elements did you connect at which lengths? And which bands were you able to achieve with each element? Thank you and 73 W3GUY
Awesome! Thank you and thanks for subbing. Great questions. The bottom of the 3D part in this video used copper wire to link the four radiating terminals. So they all appear as one too the antenna. The lengths of each doesn't matter really, instead think of how long your total radial(s) add up to. You should have 4 full wavelength for your lowest freql since the radiating elements are only a 1/4 wavelength. Since I had a 40M vertical elements (at 1/4 wave length ~32') then I should try to get 4, 40 meters (131 feet) of radial lengths spread around. I chose to divide this value (131' x 4 =524' ) up in 16 pieces. I hope that makes sense!
@@W0KNI thank you very much for the reply! What about the links of the vertical elements? It sounds like you had four vertical elements? What band or bands did each element cover and how long were they? 73 W3GUY
I only connected 3, however you can get 4 bands via harmonics. Start by tuning your lowest freq. first. Make sure that the wires are taught. I used shock cord. Each radiating element (vertical wire) is about 1/4 wave of the freq. you intend to work.
Wow, thanks for the positive comments. As a matter of fact I'm wrapping up a follow-up to that video that includes an updated version of the base plate. The whole system seems to be holding up well. I've made the separators larger and the base plate is cleaner. I'm hoping to get it all posted by the end of the week. 73, W0KNI
Good morning I was curious what frequency or bands you chose on this antenna shut up also I’ve heard that you should tune the lowest band first he said the way you did it
Good day Pat - I went with 40 30 and 20. You'll get a few others via harmonics. Yes - add your radiating element one at a time and the longest (lowest band) first. You will find that you can some minor coupling as you add more vertical wires.
I’m hoping to create a 2 m Multi element vertical dipole To use as a base station antenna at home I would like for all of the elements to be in phase so that they all radiate at the same time I just don’t know how to create the wiring harness to attach it all to get it to work correctly Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated
Hey Pat - thanks for stopping by! Just to get some clarification, when you say "multi-element" are you saying you want 144/440 coverage or integrate a 1/4 wave 2m radiator on a multiband vertical? I'll make a comment hear and see if I'm in the ballpark. I'm actually working on a Slim-Jim 144/440 setup that I can hang from that Jackite pole you see in the video. It should be above ground at least 20 ft to be effective IMO. And if you could clarify the "...radiate at the same time." statement. Does this mean you have multiple radio's you want to transmit from at the same time?
I am wanting to have 4 stacked vertical dipoles on the same support pole that will radiate Omni directional these all to wired in phase so that they have higher gain
I found this website of a commercial version of what I’m thinking that I would like to build hope this helps. www.solidsignal.com/commscope-138-150-mhz-6-9db-exposed-dipole-omni-antenna-db224-e?DB224-E&gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8Jmu9qH66ae-spj9YJccLsmVOtNVC_3Itwub1lJ3OkERQKKpQXwxM8aAojGEALw_wcB
Ok, I'm with you now. You want to build a stacked (array) of looped vertical dipole antennas on a single pole all feed by a single point. At the junction of your feed point you want to modify the signals to accomplish an out-of-phase condition so you can control the direction of the main lobe. Does that sound about right?
Just wanna have it Omni directional the entire time so I just want to make a super strong base station antenna for at home and want to confirm the proper way to wire this thing up so that the additional dipole elements will work in harmony with each other creating additional gain
Great to see more 3d printing with Ham Radio. Perhaps incorporating some tip-up features in the base would be convenient, try to avoid disturbing the radial field each time an adjustment is made. de w6akb
Hey John - thanks for watching. Good question. When is a dipole a vertical or an EFHW? The way I see these 1/4 wave verticals is that the other 1/4 has to be created to have a successful TX antenna. So having the radials makes up for the missing 1/4 wave just like vehicle mounted verticals do. As I understand it, the goal is to get to a 1/2 wave length for what ever frequency your trying to achieve. You could certainly have a center fed, vertical dipole as an inverted L, but the ground reflection of the horizontal leg will require you to raise that leg off the ground a few feet. Hopefully my ramblings made sense! Cheers.
Hey Pat - thanks for stopping by! My printer is acting up right now but there is a commenter that sent these designs to an online service. I think he paid under $25 for everything. Not a bad deal! 73.
@@W0KNI Oh that sounds excellent and a great idea are you willing to share your design I know nothing about 3-D printing and so I am talking in blissful ignorance here!
Hey Pat - absolutely. Check out the link in the description of my latest video. I've got all the pieces in that project file. You'll need to download FreeCAD to play with it. There are tons of YT vids on FreeCAD to get you going. Have fun!!
Would you please build me the base plate that you made and mail it to me I would be happy to pay you for your time and materials and the shipping charges I just can’t find any 3-D printers in this area and I would love to make this antenna- all I want is the base plate and no other parts
Hey Pat. Let me see what I can come up with. My printer has been acting up and not making the quality of prints I've been wanting. I'll need to know the diameter of the base of the pole you're using. if you want to send me pictures you can email me at w0kni.radio@gmail.com
I have an expandable pole I bought from China I don’t have a caliper but the circumference is 3 1/4 inches at the base so whatever that works out to be
Can you take a picture of the base for me? Is it a smooth pole, without any hooks or kite string clips? I ask this because my Jackite pole had two small clips that I had to tape down and adjust the diameter of the pole hole to clear them.
I really like some of those designs.
Thanks for watching Kelly. I had a great time designing them. Stay tuned for more videos! Cheers.
SW-Germany is waving a hand! 73's de Your Friend Uncle Guenter
Vielen Dank, Herr Günter
Great video, this has inspired me to build one of my own. Cheers & 73
You should! I really enjoyed the build project. It does take some time to setup but if you plan on working the air for a day and have the space - do it! 73
Hello You have a pleasant style of presenting your findings and makings, not as an**l retentive as most ham radio youtubers. Thank you and keep up your posting Fuor thumbs up.
Thanks Per! You made me laugh with that one, LOL. I try not to take myself too seriously - have a great day - more to come! Thanks for coming by!
Good video, and go Beavs!
Go Beavs!
Great informative video. Just a thought regarding the base plate having the ground plane radials and radiating elements so close together. What if you made a second plate for the ground radials and sperate the elements plate 2 or 3 inches on top?
Hey Mike - thanks for watching! I think that's the way DX Commander does it. Not a bad idea. I was trying to keep it down to one piece. At it's current design it performs really well. I get a steady SWR on 40/20 < 1.2:1 and the 10M harmonic is at 2:1. I'm already working on some new designs and will let you know! 73 w0kni
great !
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you for making this video and sharing it with all of us! I just found your channel and I subscribed, notifications turned on and thumbs up.
Can you elaborate on the radiating elements that you used? It looks like you have connections set up for four different radiating elements? Which elements did you connect at which lengths? And which bands were you able to achieve with each element? Thank you and 73 W3GUY
Awesome! Thank you and thanks for subbing. Great questions. The bottom of the 3D part in this video used copper wire to link the four radiating terminals. So they all appear as one too the antenna. The lengths of each doesn't matter really, instead think of how long your total radial(s) add up to. You should have 4 full wavelength for your lowest freql since the radiating elements are only a 1/4 wavelength. Since I had a 40M vertical elements (at 1/4 wave length ~32') then I should try to get 4, 40 meters (131 feet) of radial lengths spread around. I chose to divide this value (131' x 4 =524' ) up in 16 pieces. I hope that makes sense!
@@W0KNI thank you very much for the reply!
What about the links of the vertical elements? It sounds like you had four vertical elements?
What band or bands did each element cover and how long were they?
73 W3GUY
I only connected 3, however you can get 4 bands via harmonics. Start by tuning your lowest freq. first. Make sure that the wires are taught. I used shock cord. Each radiating element (vertical wire) is about 1/4 wave of the freq. you intend to work.
Great video. I'm looking forward to printing my own. How is everything holding up? I shared this on a few discord servers also, you did great work
Wow, thanks for the positive comments. As a matter of fact I'm wrapping up a follow-up to that video that includes an updated version of the base plate. The whole system seems to be holding up well. I've made the separators larger and the base plate is cleaner. I'm hoping to get it all posted by the end of the week. 73, W0KNI
Good morning I was curious what frequency or bands you chose on this antenna shut up also I’ve heard that you should tune the lowest band first he said the way you did it
Good day Pat - I went with 40 30 and 20. You'll get a few others via harmonics. Yes - add your radiating element one at a time and the longest (lowest band) first. You will find that you can some minor coupling as you add more vertical wires.
@@W0KNI sounds good ! Thanks for the great videos!
I’m hoping to create a 2 m Multi element vertical dipole To use as a base station antenna at home
I would like for all of the elements to be in phase so that they all radiate at the same time
I just don’t know how to create the wiring harness to attach it all to get it to work correctly
Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated
Hey Pat - thanks for stopping by! Just to get some clarification, when you say "multi-element" are you saying you want 144/440 coverage or integrate a 1/4 wave 2m radiator on a multiband vertical? I'll make a comment hear and see if I'm in the ballpark. I'm actually working on a Slim-Jim 144/440 setup that I can hang from that Jackite pole you see in the video. It should be above ground at least 20 ft to be effective IMO. And if you could clarify the "...radiate at the same time." statement. Does this mean you have multiple radio's you want to transmit from at the same time?
I am wanting to have 4 stacked vertical dipoles on the same support pole that will radiate Omni directional these all to wired in phase so that they have higher gain
I found this website of a commercial version of what I’m thinking that I would like to build hope this helps. www.solidsignal.com/commscope-138-150-mhz-6-9db-exposed-dipole-omni-antenna-db224-e?DB224-E&gclid=Cj0KCQjw16KFBhCgARIsALB0g8Jmu9qH66ae-spj9YJccLsmVOtNVC_3Itwub1lJ3OkERQKKpQXwxM8aAojGEALw_wcB
Ok, I'm with you now. You want to build a stacked (array) of looped vertical dipole antennas on a single pole all feed by a single point. At the junction of your feed point you want to modify the signals to accomplish an out-of-phase condition so you can control the direction of the main lobe. Does that sound about right?
Just wanna have it Omni directional the entire time so I just want to make a super strong base station antenna for at home and want to confirm the proper way to wire this thing up so that the additional dipole elements will work in harmony with each other creating additional gain
will that be pla or petg?
I used PLA. Since this antenna is a temporary deployment i used PLA knowing I wouldn’t deploy it in the rain or leave it out in the intense sunlight
Great to see more 3d printing with Ham Radio. Perhaps incorporating some tip-up features in the base would be convenient, try to avoid disturbing the radial field each time an adjustment is made. de w6akb
Thanks for the tips Alan! I'm always looking for improvements. I'm on v5 of the base now ...
I was hoping the video would address a real dipole vertical instead of a vertical with ground plane radials. Good project though.
Hey John - thanks for watching. Good question. When is a dipole a vertical or an EFHW? The way I see these 1/4 wave verticals is that the other 1/4 has to be created to have a successful TX antenna. So having the radials makes up for the missing 1/4 wave just like vehicle mounted verticals do. As I understand it, the goal is to get to a 1/2 wave length for what ever frequency your trying to achieve. You could certainly have a center fed, vertical dipole as an inverted L, but the ground reflection of the horizontal leg will require you to raise that leg off the ground a few feet. Hopefully my ramblings made sense! Cheers.
I really like your 3-D parts very impressive would you be willing to make the same thing for me if I were to pay for it
Hey Pat - thanks for stopping by! My printer is acting up right now but there is a commenter that sent these designs to an online service. I think he paid under $25 for everything. Not a bad deal! 73.
@@W0KNI Oh that sounds excellent and a great idea are you willing to share your design I know nothing about 3-D printing and so I am talking in blissful ignorance here!
Hey Pat - absolutely. Check out the link in the description of my latest video. I've got all the pieces in that project file. You'll need to download FreeCAD to play with it. There are tons of YT vids on FreeCAD to get you going. Have fun!!
Would you please build me the base plate that you made and mail it to me I would be happy to pay you for your time and materials and the shipping charges I just can’t find any 3-D printers in this area and I would love to make this antenna- all I want is the base plate and no other parts
Hey Pat. Let me see what I can come up with. My printer has been acting up and not making the quality of prints I've been wanting. I'll need to know the diameter of the base of the pole you're using. if you want to send me pictures you can email me at w0kni.radio@gmail.com
I have an expandable pole I bought from China I don’t have a caliper but the circumference is 3 1/4 inches at the base so whatever that works out to be
Can you take a picture of the base for me? Is it a smooth pole, without any hooks or kite string clips? I ask this because my Jackite pole had two small clips that I had to tape down and adjust the diameter of the pole hole to clear them.
OK I emailed the photos
Did you get the photos ok