2m antenna home brew??
 

Ok

I just bought at some flea fest an old style Ringo style CB antenna with the
ring on the bottom for matching tune. Also has the ground planes and bracket
for them and the aluminum antenna looks about 20 feet long (in sections) and
about 8 foot ground planes (4 total).

What I would like to do is make a 2m full wave antenna out of it. It looks
real solid at about 6ft 4inches long with or without its gnd planes. I was
thinking of using it at this length on a 45 foot tower at the top. I was
thinking of wrapping the coax about 8 times at the top for RF reasons or
matching reasons.

Any ideas why i shouldn't or should or any tips?

Thanks

73s

2m antenna home brew??
 

In article ,
"Tom" wrote:

Ok

I just bought at some flea fest an old style Ringo style CB antenna with the
ring on the bottom for matching tune. Also has the ground planes and bracket
for them and the aluminum antenna looks about 20 feet long (in sections) and
about 8 foot ground planes (4 total).

What I would like to do is make a 2m full wave antenna out of it. It looks
real solid at about 6ft 4inches long with or without its gnd planes. I was
thinking of using it at this length on a 45 foot tower at the top. I was
thinking of wrapping the coax about 8 times at the top for RF reasons or
matching reasons.

Any ideas why i shouldn't or should or any tips?

Tom-

You can probably use the materials from the CB Ringo to make a 2m
equivalent. I think you can even find dimensions of the various Ringo
versions if you search the Cushcraft web site
http://www.cushcraftamateur.com/prodsupport.php. Ringos are the "AR"
models.

Fred
K4DII

2m antenna home brew??
 

On 1/26/2013 4:15 PM, Tom wrote:
Ok

I just bought at some flea fest an old style Ringo style CB antenna with
the ring on the bottom for matching tune. Also has the ground planes and
bracket for them and the aluminum antenna looks about 20 feet long (in
sections) and about 8 foot ground planes (4 total).

What I would like to do is make a 2m full wave antenna out of it. It
looks real solid at about 6ft 4inches long with or without its gnd
planes. I was thinking of using it at this length on a 45 foot tower at
the top. I was thinking of wrapping the coax about 8 times at the top
for RF reasons or matching reasons.

Any ideas why i shouldn't or should or any tips?

Thanks

73s


Forget it! Use what you have on 10 meters. If you were closer, I would
give you a 2-meter Ringo antenna. The vertical part is 5/8 wave, not
full wave. They are a piece of aluminum junk. The Ringo Ranger type
antenna does actually work. I have one here I use on 2.

Paul, KD7HB

2m antenna home brew??
 

Thanks for the link, I see all the Ringo dimensions for single band antenna.
I don't have that trap or other parts that would allow for dual bands.

Other than lots of hours of testing, some serious testing, has anyone had
any success with the full wave 2m antenna at 6ft 4"? Will that also be
somewhat acceptible for 440 mhz Receiving only?

Some of the Ringo have the ground planes and some don't. Since I have them
should I implement them or would they have adverse affects? What length?

Thanks

73s



"Fred McKenzie" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Tom" wrote:

Ok

I just bought at some flea fest an old style Ringo style CB antenna with
the
ring on the bottom for matching tune. Also has the ground planes and
bracket
for them and the aluminum antenna looks about 20 feet long (in sections)
and
about 8 foot ground planes (4 total).

What I would like to do is make a 2m full wave antenna out of it. It
looks
real solid at about 6ft 4inches long with or without its gnd planes. I
was
thinking of using it at this length on a 45 foot tower at the top. I was
thinking of wrapping the coax about 8 times at the top for RF reasons or
matching reasons.

Any ideas why i shouldn't or should or any tips?

Tom-

You can probably use the materials from the CB Ringo to make a 2m
equivalent. I think you can even find dimensions of the various Ringo
versions if you search the Cushcraft web site
http://www.cushcraftamateur.com/prodsupport.php. Ringos are the "AR"
models.

Fred
K4DII

2m antenna home brew??
 

Ok, Thanks for the ideas.

But I want to hear some positive ideas. How can I make this work for 2m and
70cm. I don't want a 10m omni.

Can I convert this to full wave omni for 2m? And should I use the gnd planes
or not? I see the lengths of the ringos are 5/8 wave and would that be more
suitable to measure it for 5/8 wave? Why not make it a full wave?

Yes, I could easily buy one that does everything I need or want, but I was
hoping to salvage this one to utilize it to its maximum use. Or is it
rubbish? My goal is to erect it at its most useful length for 2m and
hopefully receive 70cm much better than I do now. But hopefully get better
range on 2m.

Any reason why I shouldn't shorten this ringo I have to 6ft 4in (full
wavelength for 2m) ? Any reasons why I shouldn't use the gnd planes? How
long should they be for that length omni?

Thanks





"Paul Drahn" wrote in message
...
On 1/26/2013 4:15 PM, Tom wrote:
Ok

I just bought at some flea fest an old style Ringo style CB antenna with
the ring on the bottom for matching tune. Also has the ground planes and
bracket for them and the aluminum antenna looks about 20 feet long (in
sections) and about 8 foot ground planes (4 total).

What I would like to do is make a 2m full wave antenna out of it. It
looks real solid at about 6ft 4inches long with or without its gnd
planes. I was thinking of using it at this length on a 45 foot tower at
the top. I was thinking of wrapping the coax about 8 times at the top
for RF reasons or matching reasons.

Any ideas why i shouldn't or should or any tips?

Thanks

73s


Forget it! Use what you have on 10 meters. If you were closer, I would
give you a 2-meter Ringo antenna. The vertical part is 5/8 wave, not full
wave. They are a piece of aluminum junk. The Ringo Ranger type antenna
does actually work. I have one here I use on 2.

Paul, KD7HB

I think that everyone on this forum has missed the point.
The op does not understand how antenna's works, is stuck in the CB radio and won't listen to reason.

A 9' long Ringo is 6 meters - 50 MHz.
It is also a 1/4 wave antenna for 27 MHz but will not work for 11 meters, because the impedance is all wrong - almost 5:1 VSWR....

When you shorten a antenna that is designed to work on another frequency, the design has to match in order for it to work and have the right impedance and be resonant.

A full wave antenna, other then a dipole antenna is not a balanced load.

The ring on the Ringo is the match, and the ring is around 32 inches long.
You have to subtract 30 inches from the total length - which a resonant antenna would only be about 40 inches long.

That doesn't leave much of a stub sticking up for a vertical radiator.

I gave away a HALO antenna for two meters, for working SSB and digital modes and the diameter of it was only about 24 inches.

Making a antenna is not as simple as just sticking something up in the air and connecting the coax to it and cutting off the excessive length and expecting it to work, like a mobile CB radio antenna........

Who was it that said, you can't fix stupid!

Buy a 2 meter antenna, forget about trying to make something out of your CB radio crap to save a couple of bucks.

What you could do is buy the ARRL antenna book and make a 4 element beam antenna out of the antenna segments of the Ringo if you had a piece of box tubing - antenna boom and a Gamma Match..

2m antenna home brew??
 

Ok
So the 11 meter ringo wont work after shortening and tuning and pruning for
2m.

Other than making a beam out of it like you suggest, is there anything I can
transform it into? I don't want it for cb, just 2m.

You are right, there is a lot more to know about making antennas then what I
am doing, I wont dispute that.

I only want to know some good ideas or practical ideas for this clean
antenna. Yes, I could buy a new antenna, but I don't want to.

Thanks,,

73s





"Channel Jumper" wrote in message
...

I think that everyone on this forum has missed the point.
The op does not understand how antenna's works, is stuck in the CB radio
and won't listen to reason.

A 9' long Ringo is 6 meters - 50 MHz.
It is also a 1/4 wave antenna for 27 MHz but will not work for 11
meters, because the impedance is all wrong - almost 5:1 VSWR....

When you shorten a antenna that is designed to work on another
frequency, the design has to match in order for it to work and have the
right impedance and be resonant.

A full wave antenna, other then a dipole antenna is not a balanced
load.

The ring on the Ringo is the match, and the ring is around 32 inches
long.
You have to subtract 30 inches from the total length - which a resonant
antenna would only be about 40 inches long.

That doesn't leave much of a stub sticking up for a vertical radiator.

I gave away a HALO antenna for two meters, for working SSB and digital
modes and the diameter of it was only about 24 inches.

Making a antenna is not as simple as just sticking something up in the
air and connecting the coax to it and cutting off the excessive length
and expecting it to work, like a mobile CB radio antenna........

Who was it that said, you can't fix stupid!

Buy a 2 meter antenna, forget about trying to make something out of your
CB radio crap to save a couple of bucks.

What you could do is buy the ARRL antenna book and make a 4 element beam
antenna out of the antenna segments of the Ringo if you had a piece of
box tubing - antenna boom and a Gamma Match..




--
Channel Jumper

2m antenna home brew??
 

On Sun, 27 Jan 2013 10:53:41 -0500, "Tom" wrote:

But I want to hear some positive ideas. How can I make this work for 2m and
70cm. I don't want a 10m omni.

You would probably do better loading a step ladder. However, if you
insist, you can load just about anything if you can find a 50 ohm tap
point with a gamma match. Attach a connector ground to the bottom of
the element with a hose clamp. Put another hose clamp further up the
antenna, which will later be moved up and down. Solder a series
trimmer capacitor at the center pin of the connector. Add a length of
bare wire between the trimmer cap and the 2nd hose clamp. Connect a
directional coupler, SWR meter, or antenna analyzer to the connector.
Adjust the length of the wire and the trimmer cap for minimum VSWR.
The trimmer is used to resonate out the inductance of the length of
wire. Anything that works at 2m, will sorta work at 440Mhz, but you
can do better with a 2nd connector and tap. A coax balun is
recommended.

If you want to get clever, and the lower end of the vertical element
is insulated from ground, you can treat the antenna as a dipole,
exactly as you would with a T-match. Same idea, except the connector
is located at the midpoint of the antenna. A coax balun is
recommended. You'll need to deploy the coax cable perpendicular to
the antenna in order to prevent the coax cable proximity from wrecking
the match.

I've actually built and modeled such abominations and worse. They all
eventually tuned and matched. I've done flag poles, automobile
trunks, step ladders, towers, barbed wire, chain link fences, and
bicycles. Most were on commercial 30-50MHz/VHF/UHF frequencies. They
all worked but only if you didn't care where the RF went. I modeled a
few which showed truly bizarre radiation patterns and usable
bandwidth. I found it handy to use a directional coupler (or
reflection coefficient bridge), sweep generator, and scope instead of
the common SWR meter so that I could see unexpected resonances and
center the bandwidth over the desired operating frequency. I must
admit that I've never tried to do a dual band random length antenna,
but with two feeds, methinks it should be possible.

Now, on to something more practical. Use the CB antenna as a support
structure for a better antenna with some gain. I call your attention
to the AMOS/Franklin antenna, commonly used on 2.4GHz and cellular
panel antennas:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas/ (see various AMOS models)
http://www.qsl.net/yu1aw/ANT_VHF/Amos_Ant/amos_antennas.htm
These are all 2.4 antennas, but scale nicely down to other
frequencies. The required sheet metal reflector will be the existing
CB antenna driven element. How you hang the added elements will be
your problem. The 4:1 balun is required. The 4NEC2 models above are
normalized to 2.4GHz. Find the GS card in the NEC file and change the
2442MHz to 146MHz and the model should work for 2 meters.

Now, if you're lazy and just want to get something on the air, use the
CB antenna as a 102 inch "tower". Find a suitable VHF/UHF antenna and
use a hose clamp to mount this antenna to the top of the CB antenna.
You now have the benefit of altitude, which methinks is usually worth
more than gain.

Good luck.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

2m antenna home brew??
 

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 27 Jan 2013 10:53:41 -0500, "Tom" wrote:

But I want to hear some positive ideas. How can I make this work for 2m
and
70cm. I don't want a 10m omni.

You would probably do better loading a step ladder. However, if you
insist, you can load just about anything if you can find a 50 ohm tap
point with a gamma match. Attach a connector ground to the bottom of
the element with a hose clamp. Put another hose clamp further up the

The step ladder probably will work just as well as the full wavelength
vetical. More than likely the radiation patern will be vertical and only
good for working OSCAR.
As it is well known you can match just about anything to 50 ohms but that
does not mean it will radiate or atleast radiate in a desirable direction.

2m antenna home brew??
 

On Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:36:14 +0000, Channel Jumper
wrote:

I think that everyone on this forum has missed the point.
The op does not understand how antenna's works, is stuck in the CB radio
and won't listen to reason.

Have you ever posted anything that didn't begin by insulting the
person you were allegedly trying to help? May I suggest you drop the
intro for no better reason than improving your credibility.

A 9' long Ringo is 6 meters - 50 MHz.
It is also a 1/4 wave antenna for 27 MHz but will not work for 11
meters, because the impedance is all wrong - almost 5:1 VSWR....

The CB version of the Ringo Ranger is 7 meters (23 ft) long or 5/8
wave at 27Mhz. See link at bottom. It could best be used as an HF
vertical (with an antenna tuner).

When you shorten a antenna that is designed to work on another
frequency, the design has to match in order for it to work and have the
right impedance and be resonant.

Half right. It should be the correct antenna, but not necessarily
resonant at the operating frequency. Minimum VSWR is not the same as
resonance. You can easily have minimum VSWR and still have some
reactive components left, while the definition of resonance is where
the inductive and capacitive components cancel, leaving a purely
resistive antenna impedance.

A full wave antenna, other then a dipole antenna is not a balanced
load.

The ring on the Ringo is the match, and the ring is around 32 inches
long.
You have to subtract 30 inches from the total length - which a resonant
antenna would only be about 40 inches long.

That doesn't leave much of a stub sticking up for a vertical radiator.

Throw the ring match thing away.

I gave away a HALO antenna for two meters, for working SSB and digital
modes and the diameter of it was only about 24 inches.

Hmmm... Circumference = 24" * Pi = 75 inches = 1.9 meters. Ok, full
wave loop antenna.

Making a antenna is not as simple as just sticking something up in the
air and connecting the coax to it and cutting off the excessive length
and expecting it to work, like a mobile CB radio antenna........

Actually, making a piece of metal into an antenna is that simple, but
only if you understand how to match the transmitter impedance to the
antennas almost random impedance. See my comments to Tom in this
thread. However, convincing that antenna to direct its energies in a
useful direction is far more difficult.

Who was it that said, you can't fix stupid!

They were wrong. Many stupid people have risen to high office and
position. Fixing the damage they've done is difficult, but still
possible with a change of administration.

Buy a 2 meter antenna, forget about trying to make something out of your
CB radio crap to save a couple of bucks.

That would probably be the easy way. However, learning and progress
has never followed the easy path.

What you could do is buy the ARRL antenna book and make a 4 element beam
antenna out of the antenna segments of the Ringo if you had a piece of
box tubing - antenna boom and a Gamma Match..

Good idea, but I would hate to cut up an antenna worth $1500:
http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/MLM-410527401-antena-para-cb-de-base-ringo-ranger-con-envio-gratis-_JM

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558