Roll-up J-Pole for Hiking (
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- Опубліковано 11 чер 2021
- Jack Arnold, KD4UEE, and his son are extras and go camping and hiking often, and they love to bring a dual band HTs to talk on during these trips but I doesn't always work the best. They ask what Dave's suggestion is on small, light, effective antennas for this situation?
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Edited by Callum Jakeman
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Pretty sure Dave meant SMA connectors, not 'SMC' - at least every handheld I own has an SMA anyway, from TYT to Kenwood to Motorola.
N9TAX makes and sells great roll-up j-pole antennas.
My ladder line J pole literally saved my bacon, TWICE!
This is a story I’d like to hear. Would you be willing to share here?
N9TAX slim jim antennae are $25-$30 shipped. Excellent performance.
I've been using Ed Fong's version of the antenna shown for a base for the past 6 years and it is inexpensive and works great.
He makes a portable too!
How do his antennas work at UHF (70cm +) frequencies?
My interest is for GMRS (462.xxxx - 467.xxxx) and a licensed business band frequency pair (464.xxxx / 469.xxxx).
I have traditionally used Station Master (colinear) or folded dipole DB-408/404 models for repeaters and the occasional base station and 1/4 wave mobile antennas w/magnet mount bases for HT use.
I’m currently putting together 5 or 6 “kits” of comm gear for family members and their families.
Hopefully never to be used, but with the current state of the world and a dementia afflicted criminal seemingly in charge …
This gear might actually be used at some point.
Each “kit” has 5 portable HT’s (Hytera PD782G or Motorola XPR7550e), 1 mobile (Hytera MD782G or Motorola XPR5550e) mounted in a Samlex AC to DC power supply housing, another mobile (same model) with multiple power cables that they can power up from any 12vdc source they can locate.
Antennas are the only remaining item I haven’t decided on..
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Dr Ed Fong and his Student's make and sell the Roll-up J-Pole
If you add a Tail to your HandHeld it will improve reception ( A Tail is a Quarter wave piece of wire attached to the metal of the handheld which hangs down )
My folding jpole is made out on adhesive tape and flexible household 1,5² mm copper wire, and calculated online
*YOU'RE* welcome! :)
When Dave started talking about stripping the coax, I thought he was going for making a coaxial half wave. Start by removing around 24" of the outer insulation to expose the braid. You will trim it to the final length later. Then push the unstripped coax inside the braid, flaring the braid and bringing it down the outside of the unstripped coax. You can then trim the outer braid to 19" and the center conductor at 19" and have a center fed coaxial antenna.
If you want to get fancy, you can start with the braid and center a bit longer and trim for best SWR, then tape or heat shrink over the braid. Also, you could make a loop at the tip of the center wire and solder it or crimp on a ring terminal for hanging the antenna. Of course you will need a connector to fit your radio. Note that a 2M quarter wave is nearly a 3/4 wave at 445 and will be an acceptable SWR. The big difference is that at 445, the take off angle will be 30 to 45 degrees from the horizon. It will still work much better than a rubber ducky antenna.
I bought one like this on Ebay several years ago. I copied it and did a club build with 10 or so members. It worked like a champ. I got mine with a bnc and bought adapters that fit the bnc to all of my handheld and mobiles. If you need an antenna, this will do the job.
Excellent solution.
On my HT I had vastly improved performance with a 43" folding ABBREE antenna.
KI7PCX
Just put a " tiger tail" on the HT
Just came back from working as one of several net controls for a local weekly simplex net. Almost exclusively use a roll up j pole on a 30 ft mast. I set up with my ic-7100 and was simplexing some 35-40 miles in hilly terrain. It works as well as any other omni-directional antenna I've used. I can be set up in 6-10 minutes from stopping my vehicle. I own several.
Dave the topics are always so relevant and covered so well. Good on ya man.
73 de N2NLQ
I've been carrying a "Slim Jim" antenna around with me for quite some time, when I was a new ham and my dual-band HT was all I had - my Elmer had suggested it. It still works great - even as a quick solution for my 50W go-kit radio while I set up the field antenna. Highly recommended.
I have an Ed Fong roll-up jpole for hiking and it works well. It came finished, tuned and I think it was less than the price mentioned in the video.
That’s what I pack as well. I just want a longer cable (15’ or so)
I also like my 2 m j-pole ... great antenna
Been thinking about making one for my 818
As strange as it may seem, you can build a ground plane on a connector and directly mount it to an HT and use it like that on a table or other surface. If you connect the radials to ring connectors, you can screw them onto the SO239 so it can be quickly taken down and set up again. The roll-up J-pole is easier and more compact if you have something to hang it from, but the antenna is fairly long, I believe 3/4 wavelength and offers minimal gain compared to a ground plane.
N9TAX offers these antennas. Very good quality. He also offers adapters and connectors for ht radios, extra cables, etc. He guarantees his stuff. Very reasonably priced.
I'm a new general class ham, but speaking from personal experience I'm a huge fan of J-pole antennas. Put it this way: I have an 8W (so they claim...) Baofeng HT (putting my toe in the water). With the included antenna I get 1 mile of range or so. With a nagoya after market rubber ducky I get maybe 2-3 miles. Basically such antennas are on the crappy side of miserable. Then I got a nagoya car antenna that I put on my 1st story balcony looking west and I get an S3 signal strength from a repeater 16 miles west of here in Palo Alto's hills. I'm in Milpitas (NE San Jose). With a J-pole antenna that same repeater tells me I have an S5 signal. Furthermore, there are several other repeaters that are on hill tops in various directions 18-23 miles away that I've also been able to hit (although barely...). But long story short, I think the J-pole (that I got from Prof Ed Fong in Santa Clara) is 20x better than a rubber ducky. Or else a car antenna that is well tuned is okay too. A roll up J pole for backpacking that you put into a tree using a rock and some cord should behave super well. -- KN6KLL
Thank you David! I like the performance of the Dr. Ed Fong roll-up on my HT. My mast is a 20' telescopic fishing pole. K5EHN
A few years ago I tried to find metal coat-hangers, and I gave up. Last year I bought a very similar j-pole, it is excellent especially as a portable antenna. Mine cost about 28-30 dollars.
Make your own or order from Ed Fong antenna. Ed Fong puts BNC on his roll up J Poll antenna and sends the adapter and short coax with BNC Connector on it ,if you need a little more. ED Fong has many antennas that he makes. Check out Ed Fang Antennas online!
For this purpose, I use either telescopic ant (1/2 or even 5/8), these are sometimes singleband and sometimes dualband. However, dualbands don't usually work very well or they do on one band only, so acrually they're singlebands too. Or, I use little HB9CVs on a wooden/plastic stick, so they can be placed both vertically or horizontally. Latest one I've added to my portable "shack" is a 5el LPDA, which is dualband and actually works on both bands. Although it might be cool to have a wire vertical mounted on a fibreglass stick, it'd definitely be very convenient for some particular cases, in general, I prefer the directional beams. You can adjust the direction easily and precisely, cancel interference from other direction, and finally, use them horizontal too, in case you go SSB/CW... Maybe you'll also find Oscars interesting some day and that's again a moment, when a dualband beam is a great option.
If you are in or near the city, you can forget about Baofeng + External antenna. In the city it is literally impossible to talk between two Baofengs on mobile antennas in 2km distance between each other. The receiver is quickly overwhelmed by the levels of signal and noise from outside the band. Only solution I found that does any good is adding a simple bandpass. In most cases a capacitor in series with the HOT line did the job.
I live in Portland OR and on our west side baofengs do have the desense problem. On the east side the desense problem is not so bad, because there are fewer tall antennas in the area. I live on the east side and I can hit most any repeater in the area. And with a decent antenna such as these roll-up jpoles simplex is fairly good with my "8 watt" baofeng.
Most important is the J-Pole requires no ground plane.
You’re* welcome ;)
Thank you!
don't need coat hangers. welding rod makes great element and is cheap
Dave, love your channel! I've been watching your vids since I got my license in 2019. I have a question - how does the performance of this compare to something like a mag mount 2m/70cm antenna? On the face of it, I would assume better because of more height you can get, but if you had to pick one - slim jim or mag mount - what would your choice be? 73, keep up the good work!
hard to hang a magmount in a tree in camp
Yes, that looks like my portable J pole. But I bought it for $40 or some such. Or you can make one for $15 in parts. Just need the right measurements... and the ability to attach the connectors.
I have a dumb question..how is the length of the antenna measured.. from the feeder line coax to the box or from the connection at the ladder line?? Thanks 73
I'm studying for my Swedish license, but when you (and other ham guys) talk about using adapters like it's nothing , I get confused.
I work in computer networking, and there, any type of adapter will typically f0rk everything up. Especially in long-haul radio where throughput often isn't that great to begin with. You get reflections from the adapters, and after a few of them, the retransmits add up - with a coresponding decrease in available bandwidth.
I'm still trying to get my head around all this stuff, so don't cut my head off, LOL.
Is that J-Pole antenna section just some old flat TV antenna wire with some non-functional cut outs?
Dr. Ed Fong sells one of these for about $30.
Does anyone know if they make the portable j-pole for the GMRS bands?
Ed Fong has them, as well as N9TAX.
Just run a counterpoise and be done.
Ed Fong sells one for $40.
I made one for $5
@@JT-py9lv Sounds about right depending on what you have laying around.
@@bryanwhited5474 I had a 500' spool of 450ohm ladder line and a 500' spool of RG8x.... So yes, if you buy in bulk and dont have to go out to buy everything. Not as portable as the Ed Fong antenna's, but it works.
@@JT-py9lv Considering the initial question came from someone who had no idea about possible antenna options for their HT radio, it is very unlikely that this individual is going to make a jpole.
@@daveN2MXX I get it.... But, as an extra class they should know how.
I’m not trying to be funny but, has anyone (like any neighborhood kid’s) ever told you that you bare a STRONG resemblance to
Pa-Pa Smurf???
I think it’s the beard and blue shirt that does it. LOL
PS, enjoy your videos. 👍🏻
Haha, now that you mention it, you are right! haha
This type of question out of an extra is why I contend the changes to the license structure was a mistake. This is a tech level question.
But Callum needs to check his spelling, he made errors in both of those markups.
and only one moron was triggered............ guess who that tool was.. go on guess
Wow, two Amateur Extras who can't figure out how to make a field antenna for VHF, but had to pass a test on the knowledge needed to build their own radio from scratch and every part of antenna theory.
And why do we have these tests again?
Spelling Dave; you're not your, various not verious. Nonetheless, great video...