slim jim ladder line for 2 meter

Hurray antenna build! This isn't my first, but it was the smallest. The other antennas I've built have been for CB, 11 meters. This one was for frequencies on the 2 meter band. I found some directions here. They served me very well and I had the foresight to take photos as I made the thing.

I've been planning to make a larger 2m J-pole antenna out of 1/2" copper pipe for awhile now. This is not that. I was wanting a better antenna for chatting on the 2m net in my area. Last week I had to drop out because my little handheld just wasn't getting out like it needed to. The J-Pole I want to build will be larger, about 8' tall. When that goes up I want it to be in a more permanent way. So something for the intermediate, ahh yes I have a bunch of 450ohm ladder line in the garage! Some quick googling and reading in my new antenna building book and boom a design is ready to try. See the earlier link.

Behold! Ladder line



















Step one I stripped the top. Then proceeded to do a crap job of soldering things together.


So I cut that off and tried again, this is a bit better.


Once that was completed I measured about 60" and cut again. I then measured out and stripped about 2". The full antenna is supposed to be about 58" long in total. I wanted to be sure I had a bit extra to work with, thus I measured 60" knowing I can trim off. 

I then measured 58" and used pliers to bend the stripped ends 90deg towards each other. What I learned here was that all the extra length I had was very useful in making a better looking end. If I were to make one of these again I'd strip more on the top side too. I twisted the wires together and trimmed off some extra, then laid some solder on it. Next step measure 19" up from this end and cut a 1" gap.

At this point I started contemplating how I was going to hang this thing. I decided to get some 3/4" pvc pipe I had in the shed from one of my CB antenna builds. I cut a 50" piece and fed the ladder line up into it. 

Then it was time to figure out where to place the SO259 connector. According to the site I found I should connect it about 4" up from the bottom, so I stripped out that area.

I connected the jumpers to note which end had the 1" gap cut in. 

I  experimented a bit and landed on placing the connector on a small shim that  I screwed onto the pvc. All said it resulted in a solid little antenna.

How did it perform though? Well I had no complaint on the evening net, I'm looking forward to getting it in a stable location, needs some weather proofing. Then seeing how much it increases my rang. I was tuned to the Argonne repeater and I could at least ping it to get the repeater ID. I heard people chatting on one of the Dupage club repeaters but was unable to get out to them. I'll update once I can test more, overall I am very pleased though.






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