"Jim noname" wrote in message
news:SIfvc.34985$eY2.14267@attbi_s02...
hello. I just had a few questions about building 2m antennas.

This will be used indoors. I havent decided if its worth the trouble to
climb around in the attic or if I should just mount it on the wall. I
have
vinyl siding so hopefully that is a plus.

I had a 1/4 wave 2m GP in the attic, built around an SO239 connector. Worked
like gangbusters. I later put up an Isopole outside, but in some directions
the attic antenna worked better.

My first is about the classic ground plane built on a so239 connector. I
went with #14 wire and soldered the center wire on no problem. My question
is whats the sturdiest way to stick on the radials? I have a 100 watt
iron
and still can't get a solid connection for the radials.

Don't try to solder the radials on to the connector. Get 4 spade lug or ring
terminals, and solder one to each wire. Fasten to SO239 with the mounting
screws. There is no wind in the attic; so you can use soft #16 wire if you
want. You can either put an insulator on the top of the vertical and hang it
from the peak of the roof, or nail a vertical piece of wood up from the
rafters. For the latter, fasten some sort of horizontal plate (wood,
plastic, metal) to the top, and mount the SO to that.

I was also considering just putting up a vertical dipole on the wall. I've
heard people say they had better luck with the ground plane but maybe they
didnt have the coax ran off to the side far enough or just dropped it
straight down? It seems a little tricky feeding it from the center and
having the antenna vertical but maybe a few wire tacks can fix that.

I would not tack the vertical dipole to a wall. Put insulators on the ends,
and run it between the rafters and the peak of the roof. You need to run the
coax at right angles to the dipole for as far as possible. Taping the dipole
to a thin piece of dry wood, or piece of plastic pipe might be OK.

As a alternative to the dipole on the wall I also thought about just
getting
a connector and soldering the wire directly to it bent upwards and then
using some flexible wire for the ground and let it hang below the shelf.
Would this work ok being connected directly to the radio?

What do you guys suggest?

thanks

I was able to bring up repeaters 60 miles away with 10W using the attic GP.

Tam/WB2TT