Building your own Ham Radio Antennas!

[@haxwithaxe]

Simon is the KZbin king of homebrew antennas. A freaking tarp...

[@TheSmokinApe]

Simon is the man, great guy and tons of fun 👍

[@Tokyo1991.JL1AJE]

Antenna building has got to be one of the most satisfying parts of the hobby. Especially getting a signal out from a QTH that only allows compromised antenna. It’s a lot of trial and error and surprises but rewarding nonetheless.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Robert, I love when people get creative and make stuff like Simon did 👍

[@robertmeyer4744]

That was a great show. love the blue tarp antenna. loop antenna's like that make great RX antenna. some of them home made antenna's work just as good and some times better then a store bought antenna. I test with Walmart speaker wire. works super, if left out it will stretch and crack. I just re wrap one of my toroid UNUN . was a type 61 ferrite wrap 49:1 with 17 AWG mag wire. 100 watt FT8 would start to heat up the wire before the core. got about 250 PEP SSB . did a re wrap 49:1 as a auto transformer tap at 2 turns. out of #14 AWG mag wire. same 100 watt FT8 no heating on wire. did 250watt FT8 and after a wile the core started to heat but the wire stayed about same temp as core. the 17 AWG on thermal shows rings of heat before the toroid. same core . different wire . different wrap still 49:1 with 100 PF cap. I use yarn to wrap my toroid then I get length for wire. my tent poles are fiber glass. maybe tape wire to it. I got old CAT 5 wire . 73's

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey Robert. Simon was a lot of fun and I love the creative ways he builds his antennas 👍

[@ohaya1]

I do shout a lot l, just ask the wife.... Hilarious 😂

[@TheSmokinApe]

lol, Simon is a hoot 👍

[@keimahane]

This was a great stream, thank you all. So many ideas and food for thought...

[@TheSmokinApe]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@janhenkins]

Well. Just putting this out there, apart from one very sad ham causing QRM down in the comments, I think that everybody looking at this stream would agree with me that this was one of the more information-dense and pleasant streams from this group of friends (as judged against all the other info-dense pleasant streams from the same group). Ape and All, it never fails to amaze me how much I learn every time I watch your streams (and let's not forget your individual videos ), so please continue having fun and teaching us all kinds of stuff! 73, Jan M7HNK

[@TheSmokinApe]

Thanks for the kind words Jan, I’m glad you liked the videos. Also, our fried with the bad attitude has been blocked 👍

[@mwalker1975]

Watching on replay. Listening to the conversation about homebrew with goofy looking antenna, all I can add is this. My experience is that the uglier the antenna, the better it seems to work. I can't explain why.

[@TheSmokinApe]

Haha 👍

[@haxwithaxe]

RF exposure for random people for 15m at 100W is about 3-5ft at 50% duty with a dipole. He's probably fine under the tarp.

[@TheSmokinApe]

You are probably correct 👍

[@johnemmons9087]

Great video! Looked for, Smokey, at Orlando. Couldn’t find you! How about building a chalk line antenna?! Be well and stay safe all!

[@TheSmokinApe]

Hey John, we have been talking about chalk line or fishing reel 👍

[@DaveW6OOD]

Nice, a multiband tarp. New CAHR kit!?! What’s Greek for “transient”?

[@TheSmokinApe]

lol 😂

[@Tokyo1991.JL1AJE]

40:45 QRP Hammock in the making 🤪

[@TheSmokinApe]

Haha

[@qutips33]

copper tape must be fine to use for an antenna 😃 LA2VLA

[@TheSmokinApe]

I think I’m going to pick some up to try out 👍

[@Tokyo1991.JL1AJE]

12 comments yet only 6 showing… I posted an innocent enough comment compared to our rude friend below. What gives?

[@TheSmokinApe]

They look published now. After a stream ends it gets processed by KZbin which can slow when the comments are live 👍

[@Tokyo1991.JL1AJE]

I see them now. Propagation issues… I guess as Hams we just need to suck it up lol Btw it’s John, and I finally got my call sign. 73 de JL1AJE

[@TheSmokinApe]

Congrats John 🍻

[@Tokyo1991.JL1AJE]

Cheers Ape! I’m having quite some fun already. Bagged New Caledonia DX SSB on my very first QSO on 15m with 50W piped into a mangled plug & play diy EFHW. Tuned to accommodate my IC7200 not having an ATU. Used the G90 band scope to find the station 🤓 Aiming to bag 3G0YA next 🗿 Don’t have a medical license so no local QSO for now 🫣