The antenna is on top of a 2' length of 1" schedule 40 PVC pipe which is resting on an old microphone stand.
The elements are all 2.67" long. The four angled elements are copper-clad steel welding rods and the center is 0.0625" copper rod. The welding rod was too thick for the center connector and filing the end of the rod down took the copper cladding off and made soldering it in impossible.
The elements are mounted on a SO-239 connector. The screws are long enough to fit into the PVC pipe but I had to cut slots to open the diameter of the pipe slightly. The antenna is held in by the tension of the pipe.
An SMC pigtail is soldered on to the other end of the SO-239 and runs down the inside to plug into the dongle.
Finally, I gave the whole thing a couple of coats of Plasti Dip to make it look cool.
It works. It's a huge improvement over the stock whip that comes with the dongles. The welding rod is stiff but the copper center element bends pretty easily.
Clicking on the photos will open the full-size images on Flickr.
No comments:
Post a Comment