TV Antenna - Homemade???
Mac Yuile
Does anyone have the plans to build a versitile omnidirectional TV antenna
for use on a sailboat operated on Lake Ontario.
Remarks and comments would be most welcome.
Thanks
Mac
allen r. perrins
1. Bend a 66 inch piece of 3/8 soft copper tubing into a perfect circle
except leave a 6 inch gap. Flatten the ends and connect them with a
scrap piece of fiberglass batten.
2. Get a 300 ohm (pigtail type) to 75 ohm coax tranformer (Rad Shack).
3 Split the the twin lead down the middle for 6 inches forming a "Y".
4. Attach this to the ends of the circle of tubing.
You now have a 6-66 omnidirectional antenna!
You can make a support frame out of two pieces of 1/2 inch poly pipe
using "T" connectors thru which the tubing goes, in an "X" form. Add two
more "T"s in the center of each half of the X, aiming one up and one
down. Add two verticals of convenient length one up towards the sky
the other down towards the earth. This whole mess now looks like
a child's "Jack", as in bounce the ball and pick up the jacks.
Haul up with the main halyard sliding along the back stay. Lead the
coax and a safety down haul to the conpanionway or a convenient hatch.
Also works if attached to the overhead in the main cabin but signal is
not as strong particularly with a wet salty deck!
And they say a picture is worth 1000 words! Don't see why!
Al