I thought I remembered seeing an article on the Internet about a Tape
Measure Dipole. I did a search and found it at
. This is a pretty nice article, complete
with pictures and enough information to be able to replicate it, or make
something similar.
Michael Colvin, W6CUJ
w6cuj@... for amateur radio correspondence
mcolvin@... for genealogy-related mail
mcolvin@... for everything else.
See the Colvin Family History web site at
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"
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----- Original Message -----
From: "rudeparts" <rupertgo@...>
To: <FT817@...>
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 2:31 PM
Subject: [FT817] Re: Tape Measure Dipole
--- In FT817@..., Gerry Wheeler KG4NBB <gwheelerx@q...>
wrote:
On Sun, 2003-07-13 at 08:31, rudeparts wrote:
Rupert, G6HVY and steel tape measure dipole
Can you elaborate on your tape measure dipole? I've had that
thought
myself -- variable length, and already accurately measured! Any
photos?
--
Gerry Wheeler KG4NBB
Naples, FL
N26.28 W081.76
I bought a couple of 5m long steel tape measures from Maplin (three
quid each - that's around $5) and silver soldered pigtails to the
steel thumb tags at the ends. I thought this would make a handy
portable dipole, as all I would have to do is attach the tape
measure cases to trees or other nearby objects using bungees or
cable ties, and hoped it would resonate at 20m -- other bands being
usable via my Z11.
I haven't been able to try it for transmission on HF yet -- soon,
Igor, soon -- but I did pop out and test everything the other day on
Hampstead Heath, at least as far as I could. I hooked the aerial up
to two branches of a tree, pulled the tape measures out to their
fullest extension and ran it into the back of the FT-817 via ten
metres of RG-58; no tuner. The ends of the dipole were around 2m off
the ground, and the middle was around 50cm. Not ideal.
I was rather surprised to find it hit 1.3:1 on Six at full extension
and with no tuner, but even more surprised to have a LZ3 come back
to me when I answered his CQ. I may have babbled a bit...
From what I've read, the steel used in these tape measures is quite
resistive, brittle and difficult to work with, which is why I
decided to leave the tape itself intact and just connect to the end
bit. But for six quid per self-packing dipole, I reckon it's worth a
go -- and not only does the aerial tidy itself away after you've
used it, but you can measure stuff with it at other times.
Photos? Sure. I'll do some this week... but really, there's nothing
much to see except my lousy soldering. Next weekend I'm away, but
the weekend after I may revisit the Heath and take some pictures of
the dipole in action.
Rupert, G6HVY and (counter)poised for HF action
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