Great video! Just a quick tip for future builds: When installing egg-shaped insulators, it's generally best to thread the wire through the far side of the hole, so that forces from two wires push against the insulator. This orientation helps the insulator resist tension forces more effectively. While it might not be a significant factor for your specific lightweight antenna, it's a good practice to keep in mind for more robust installations. Thanks for sharing your build!
A quick tip for the binding posts on the banana connector is that there are usually holes going through each binding posts if you unscrew the black and red caps all the way. You are meant to slide the wire in and then crank the caps down, that will be a much stronger connection and you can pull the wire through and then wrap the extra around and the wires will never pull out. That's an awesome antenna, I built an inverted 20m V like that a while back and it's a great antenna. I also added a second set of wires for 10 meters.
I have been thinking of a multi band antenna like this. I tried to put the wires through the hole it is a little big. I ordered smaller wire. Thanks for the advice and thanks for watching. 73s
@@MyHamRadioJourney sota beams wire is great for antennas Fan dipoles are also great. Just keep the separators about 6inches apart. Also can be inverted.
Hi Jack..Brilliant video! Thank you..and thank you for publishing your many failures while attempting to measure the legs!! We've all done exactly that but few would have the courage to show it on YT..So well done.. We're all familiarwith that awful metallic sound when the tape decides to release it's grip and 'auto-rewind'. Re the VNA.. I guess that, initially, displaying a wider range of frequencies would give a clearer indication of where resonance is, before 'homing in' for a closer look. If the dip appears to be too low in frequency, we have to shorten the legs. Thank you again..This is real ham radio!😊 73..John..UK
Thank you for the wonderful comment. I like showing my failures with success. I like showing what could happen when building an antenna. I will work on the legs and see where I can get the SWR. Thanks for the advice and for watching. 73s
Sweep from 13-15Mhz. That will tell you right away if you are long or short. If you need a more granular reading after you have it ballparked, recalibrate and reduce the sweep distance.
@@MyHamRadioJourney You should also have a setting somewhere in the menu to have the nano display resonant frequency. This also gives the complex impedance information in j ohms.
i loved inverted V a lot, remember in old days activation on a swedish island harbour hanging the V on a flagpole with 200 meters wire over some water contacted Japan over the northpole in aurora a 9+ on the 11 meterband, never been a HAM sadly too difficult and posibilitys for study were less
I began my journey to ham radio by starting with 11 meters. I used to feel the HAM test was too hard, but there are so many online resources to prepare you for the test. I hope one day I will catch you on the airways. It sounds like you like building antennas, too. I feel the rewarding part is when you make that kind of contact. Thanks for watching. 73s
GOOD JOB 👍🏻 Getting an antenna to resonate below 3:1 on your first try is not bad at all. If you have a "straight" SWR" across the desired band but it's not at 1:1, try increasing the angle of the g5rv. Changing the angle by just a few degrees will raise or lower the SWR across the band evenly. ❤ As with any antenna installation, the "variance" in the ground potential that the antenna is built over will effect the SWR also ❤ I have been working on a two turn 160 meter sky loop fed with 68 feet of 450 ohm twinleed to an old swan 2k tuner. Working great with 12 inch spreaders between the two turns, no tuner needed at 160😊.
A plastic spring clamp or even better, a medium sized paper clamp (with the fold over arms) will do a great job of holding the wire to the tape measure. Being on the frugal side it was hard for me to spend more bucks on wire strippers since I already had at least three similar to yours. Once I bought the Kline strippers and used them a few times the higher price was forgotten promptly. As others said, broaden the frequency range on the VNA and it will show you where the antenna is resonant.
BTW for future, less aggravating measuring, I personally use a 100 foot fabric ribbon tape measure. clamp one end of the wire with some manner of clip, and start pulling the wire and tape through your fingers, keeping it taught.
I have found when making an inverted v dipole on 20m it can be more than a foot shorter at 45° than a horizontal dipole. You can gradually fold the wire back on itself until you find resonance where you want it. (1.1-1.3swr) Hope this helps. 73 de Aiden EI8HJB.
I have a 70ft tower with a couple of ham radio antennas on it. I currently only use it for my wifi receiver, though. The former owner was a ham operator.
❤BTW, when measuring, divide your total by four. Measure the smaller amount and fold the wire over. Remove the tape measure and duplicate your small length, you know the length to the bend👍
Length of a half wave dipole = 468/frequency in mhz, height of a quarter wave vertical = 234/freq in mhz - no app required. Use the holes in the plastic below the binding posts to run the speaker wire through first, to provide a little strain relief.
Building antennas is good fun and you learn as you go. I would drop the mast down and move the legs out further, if you can, so they are less vertical. They say 45 degrees is about the correct angle from the ground. It looks like the swr is going down as you go up in the band. I believe that is indicating that the legs are too short. Changing the angle will effect the swr too.
Thanks Tom for the assistance. I’ll try cutting a few new wires or adding on to test first. I will also pull the legs out. Have to get to the park for room. Thanks for watching and the help. 73s
Hi my friend. Have you heard of a half square. Antenna 20m. Same materials on a little more wire. So that’s a 16.6ft vertical up to a negative black. This being corner fed. Then 35ft horizontal with an extra vertical down leg. This making a continuous length. At this point had ty rope to this point. Suspend both legs 2 ft off the ground This is my fav mon band with. Dx. For the 20m band. Mono band the legs vertical become phased. Low take off angels. Dx monster. East west dig. Line runs north south. Mark from thr uk
higher freq shorter wire (element) however there are other things to consider. the length of feed line, the Gage wire used. by my calc 1/2 wave for a 14.810 mhz gives 33 feet .2.4 inch
Thanks for the tip. I feel my wire was a little short. I forgot about the insulators. I will add some wire and see if that helps the SWR. Thanks for watching, and 73s.
What should be a 30 second job to measure a piece of wire took about 7 minutes. I have always done the way Jack did at the end without any tape. I have five attic dipoles, 20m to 10m with chocolate block connectors at the centre. Dipoles work well. Reset your VNA to maybe 13 MHz to 15 MHz. I bought a NANO VNA and it makes things much easier than just an SWR meter as I used to do. It's so easy now to see if the aerial is too long or too short. I set my VNA at first for 4 to 6 MHz and 13 to 29 MHz. I have a low inverted vee outside for 5.262 MHz and soldered coax at the centre on a piece of p.c.b. cut in the middle to each leg and in a plastic box. It's squashed into a 25' x 13' garden. From above it's a kind of G shape. G4GHB.
use electric cord wire istead of speaker wire and make an air choke near the feed point/ spread the elements 120 degrees and yoy will have swr 1 1...73..also throw that connector and connect them directly...
The mast cost is not included in the antenna build. The antenna is designed to be pulled up into a tree. Mast was for testing at my house. Thanks for watching. 73s
Save yourself a balun and coax and build an HQD antenna (lol he really upset some people calling it that) Basically what you built but the speaker wire is also the feedline. Just a tricky little knot is all you need to keep the wire from splitting down the feedline. Hope you give this one a try I think you have plenty of speaker wire left. He explains the magic and importance of a halfwave feedline. Your screen shot will work fine you need both measurements. ua-cam.com/video/cqh0Ntus5G0/v-deo.htmlsi=YU_2IBGbUMYEWmHZ BTW when you use the NANO VNA zoom out on the frequency and you can see where the dip is. I think of a 2 meter antenna is short and a 20 meter antenna is long. If my dip is high then I know my antenna is short, if the dip is lower than my desired frequency the antenna is to long. Hope that helps!!! de ki7cia
He meant to say 16.48 ft, but I would double check what length you have as another comment pointed out that the stripped wire ends made the antenna effectively 4" too short. So always cut longer first and remeasure
Love to see a house with awnings. They're out of style today, but they are so practical and work so well.
That is our neighbors place. They are very old and don’t update much. Thanks for watching. 73
Great video! Just a quick tip for future builds: When installing egg-shaped insulators, it's generally best to thread the wire through the far side of the hole, so that forces from two wires push against the insulator. This orientation helps the insulator resist tension forces more effectively. While it might not be a significant factor for your specific lightweight antenna, it's a good practice to keep in mind for more robust installations. Thanks for sharing your build!
Thanks for the great tip. I will keep that one handy for my next build. Thanks for watching, and 73s.
Speaker wire dipoles are simple, effective and inexpensive. Nice work!
Thanks. My car is becoming filled with speaker wire antennas. Thanks for watching, and 73s.
A quick tip for the binding posts on the banana connector is that there are usually holes going through each binding posts if you unscrew the black and red caps all the way. You are meant to slide the wire in and then crank the caps down, that will be a much stronger connection and you can pull the wire through and then wrap the extra around and the wires will never pull out. That's an awesome antenna, I built an inverted 20m V like that a while back and it's a great antenna. I also added a second set of wires for 10 meters.
I have been thinking of a multi band antenna like this. I tried to put the wires through the hole it is a little big. I ordered smaller wire. Thanks for the advice and thanks for watching. 73s
@@MyHamRadioJourney sota beams wire is great for antennas Fan dipoles are also great. Just keep the separators about 6inches apart. Also can be inverted.
Hi Jack..Brilliant video! Thank you..and thank you for publishing your many failures while attempting to measure the legs!! We've all done exactly that but few would have the courage to show it on YT..So well done.. We're all familiarwith that awful metallic sound when the tape decides to release it's grip and 'auto-rewind'.
Re the VNA.. I guess that, initially, displaying a wider range of frequencies would give a clearer indication of where resonance is, before 'homing in' for a closer look. If the dip appears to be too low in frequency, we have to shorten the legs. Thank you again..This is real ham radio!😊 73..John..UK
Thank you for the wonderful comment. I like showing my failures with success. I like showing what could happen when building an antenna. I will work on the legs and see where I can get the SWR. Thanks for the advice and for watching. 73s
Sweep from 13-15Mhz. That will tell you right away if you are long or short. If you need a more granular reading after you have it ballparked, recalibrate and reduce the sweep distance.
I will try this approach. Thanks for the information and for watching. 73s
@@MyHamRadioJourney You should also have a setting somewhere in the menu to have the nano display resonant frequency. This also gives the complex impedance information in j ohms.
i loved inverted V a lot, remember in old days activation on a swedish island harbour hanging the V on a flagpole with 200 meters wire over some water contacted Japan over the northpole in aurora a 9+ on the 11 meterband, never been a HAM sadly too difficult and posibilitys for study were less
I began my journey to ham radio by starting with 11 meters. I used to feel the HAM test was too hard, but there are so many online resources to prepare you for the test. I hope one day I will catch you on the airways. It sounds like you like building antennas, too. I feel the rewarding part is when you make that kind of contact. Thanks for watching. 73s
For future reference, fasten your wire to your tape measure then stand something heavy on top of the tape to hold it in place while you measure.
I need this device I have more ideas. Thanks for watching. 73s
GOOD JOB 👍🏻
Getting an antenna to resonate below 3:1 on your first try is not bad at all.
If you have a "straight" SWR" across the desired band but it's not at 1:1, try increasing the angle of the g5rv. Changing the angle by just a few degrees will raise or lower the SWR across the band evenly.
❤ As with any antenna installation, the "variance" in the ground potential that the antenna is built over will effect the SWR also ❤
I have been working on a two turn 160 meter sky loop fed with 68 feet of 450 ohm twinleed to an old swan 2k tuner. Working great with 12 inch spreaders between the two turns, no tuner needed at 160😊.
I would like to have a 160 meter antenna up before winter. I have the room just thinking of the type I want. Thanks for watching. 73s
A plastic spring clamp or even better, a medium sized paper clamp (with the fold over arms) will do a great job of holding the wire to the tape measure. Being on the frugal side it was hard for me to spend more bucks on wire strippers since I already had at least three similar to yours. Once I bought the Kline strippers and used them a few times the higher price was forgotten promptly. As others said, broaden the frequency range on the VNA and it will show you where the antenna is resonant.
Thanks! I will look into those strippers. I have many plans for future antennas. Thanks for watching. 73s
BTW for future, less aggravating measuring, I personally use a 100 foot fabric ribbon tape measure. clamp one end of the wire with some manner of clip, and start pulling the wire and tape through your fingers, keeping it taught.
I have one of these, and I will give it a try. Thanks for the tip, and thanks for watching. 73s
I have found when making an inverted v dipole on 20m it can be more than a foot shorter at 45° than a horizontal dipole. You can gradually fold the wire back on itself until you find resonance where you want it. (1.1-1.3swr)
Hope this helps.
73 de Aiden EI8HJB.
This information is very helpful. Thanks for sharing. Thanks for watching 73s
I have a 70ft tower with a couple of ham radio antennas on it. I currently only use it for my wifi receiver, though. The former owner was a ham operator.
Always nice to have a tower. Thanks for watching. 73s
Nice Work, 73 from Italy SWL
Thanks for the compliment. Thanks for watching. 73s
❤BTW, when measuring, divide your total by four. Measure the smaller amount and fold the wire over. Remove the tape measure and duplicate your small length, you know the length to the bend👍
This is a great idea. The tape measure gave me a workout. Thanks for watching. 73s
Length of a half wave dipole = 468/frequency in mhz, height of a quarter wave vertical = 234/freq in mhz - no app required. Use the holes in the plastic below the binding posts to run the speaker wire through first, to provide a little strain relief.
I tried the holes the speaker wire was a little too big. Thanks for the tips. Thanks for watching. 73s
Good job! 73! from Hungary. 👍
Thank you. My wife's family, in the long past, was from Hungary. Thanks for watching. 73s
Building antennas is good fun and you learn as you go. I would drop the mast down and move the legs out further, if you can, so they are less vertical. They say 45 degrees is about the correct angle from the ground. It looks like the swr is going down as you go up in the band. I believe that is indicating that the legs are too short. Changing the angle will effect the swr too.
Thanks Tom for the assistance. I’ll try cutting a few new wires or adding on to test first. I will also pull the legs out. Have to get to the park for room. Thanks for watching and the help. 73s
My 👍👍👍 for "CW junkie". 73.
CW is a great mode to work and is just enjoyable. Thanks for watching, and 73s.
Fun vid Jack! 73!
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching. 73s
Hi my friend. Have you heard of a half square. Antenna 20m. Same materials on a little more wire. So that’s a 16.6ft vertical up to a negative black. This being corner fed. Then 35ft horizontal with an extra vertical down leg. This making a continuous length. At this point had ty rope to this point. Suspend both legs 2 ft off the ground This is my fav mon band with. Dx. For the 20m band. Mono band the legs vertical become phased. Low take off angels. Dx monster. East west dig. Line runs north south. Mark from thr uk
Make the coax exit away 90 dg away Great antenn.
Thanks for this information. I will give it a try. Thanks for watching. 73s
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for watching. 73s
higher freq shorter wire (element) however there are other things to consider. the length of feed line, the Gage wire used. by my calc 1/2 wave for a 14.810 mhz gives 33 feet .2.4 inch
Thanks for the tip. I feel my wire was a little short. I forgot about the insulators. I will add some wire and see if that helps the SWR. Thanks for watching, and 73s.
What should be a 30 second job to measure a piece of wire took about 7 minutes. I have always done the way Jack did at the end without any tape.
I have five attic dipoles, 20m to 10m with chocolate block connectors at the centre. Dipoles work well.
Reset your VNA to maybe 13 MHz to 15 MHz.
I bought a NANO VNA and it makes things much easier than just an SWR meter as I used to do. It's so easy now to see if the aerial is too long or too short. I set my VNA at first for 4 to 6 MHz and 13 to 29 MHz.
I have a low inverted vee outside for 5.262 MHz and soldered coax at the centre on a piece of p.c.b. cut in the middle to each leg and in a plastic box. It's squashed into a 25' x 13' garden. From above it's a kind of G shape.
G4GHB.
I would like to see a picture of your antenna. If you get a chance, can you send one via my email on QRZed? Thanks for watching and 73s.
@@MyHamRadioJourney Attempting to send photo's soon.
For less of a wrestling match you could stretch out your tape and mark the floor in the appropriate spot, then stretch out your wire separately
This is a great idea. Thanks for sharing. I will try this on my next build. Thanks for watching. 73s
I would have put a table leg on the tape measure to save a headache
That is a great tip. Thanks for watching. 73s
@MyHamRadioJourney thanks for taking the time to make good content for us everyday folks
16 foot 48 inches is 20 feet. or do you mean 16.48' which is nearly 16 and a half feet or 16 foot and a tad shy of 6 inches?
16.44 or 5.01 meters. Maybe I said it wrong? Thanks for watching. 73s
About 16ft 5inches is a good starting place to start tuning from
use electric cord wire istead of speaker wire and make an air choke near the feed point/ spread the elements 120 degrees and yoy will have swr 1 1...73..also throw that connector and connect them directly...
Great tips! Thanks for the advice, and thanks for watching. 73s
Sixteen feet forty-eight inches is either 20 feet, or do you mean sixteen feet and about 6 inches? Thanks for your video.
Yes, that is what I meant to say. Thanks for watching. 73s
wives love helping you measure stuff lol
I guess that came out bad? Thanks for watching. 73s
do you have a file to 3d print that nano vna case?
No sorry. I bought it from Etsy great seller and he will add your call sign. www.etsy.com/listing/1679091859/nanovna-case. Thanks for watching. 73s
Never use one word when a thousand will do.
Exactly, I wanted this video to have a lot of detail. Thanks for watching. 73s
What is the cost of the mast?
The mast cost is not included in the antenna build. The antenna is designed to be pulled up into a tree. Mast was for testing at my house. Thanks for watching. 73s
Isn't 16ft 48in just 20ft?
16.44 or 5.01 meters. I might have said it wrong? Thanks for watching. 73s
16 foot 48 inches. That's funny.
I meant to say 16.48 or 5.01 meters. Thanks for watching. 73s
Thanks for the info, but this video surely doesn't need to be 39 minutes long.
Thanks. I didn’t want to edit it to tight. I wanted to show the issues you can have building an antenna. Thanks for watching. 73s
You cut almost 4” off the wire to strip it. Therefore you are 4” too short
That was a mistake. Thanks for the tip. Thanks for watching. 73s
side snips is the PC term 🤣
I teach that every day. Thanks for watching. 73s
Don't use white/clear zip ties outside, they disintegrate under sun in one year.
Thanks for the tip. I will have to get some black ones. Thanks for watching. 73s
You can get UV rated zip ties in any color.
16 ft and 48 inches. Lol. 20ft?
I meant to say 16.48 or 5.01 meters. Thanks for watching. 73s
Stop trying to make fetch, err, I mean "Your good old friend, Jack" happen. It's not going to happen.
Always a friend in ham radio. Thanks for watching. 73s
Save yourself a balun and coax and build an HQD antenna (lol he really upset some people calling it that) Basically what you built but the speaker wire is also the feedline. Just a tricky little knot is all you need to keep the wire from splitting down the feedline. Hope you give this one a try I think you have plenty of speaker wire left. He explains the magic and importance of a halfwave feedline. Your screen shot will work fine you need both measurements. ua-cam.com/video/cqh0Ntus5G0/v-deo.htmlsi=YU_2IBGbUMYEWmHZ
BTW when you use the NANO VNA zoom out on the frequency and you can see where the dip is. I think of a 2 meter antenna is short and a 20 meter antenna is long. If my dip is high then I know my antenna is short, if the dip is lower than my desired frequency the antenna is to long. Hope that helps!!! de ki7cia
Thanks for the great tips I will try them. Thanks for watching. 73s
16' 48" ? Has me confused 🥸
He meant to say 16.48 ft, but I would double check what length you have as another comment pointed out that the stripped wire ends made the antenna effectively 4" too short. So always cut longer first and remeasure
@HumanTimeMachine Who measures in decimals of feet?
I agree it came out wrong. Thanks for watching. 73s