According to Joe Domaleski (KI4ASK), a roll of ordinary speaker wire, a few connectors, and convenient length of coaxial cable will get you on the air in less than an hour.
Joe does an excellent job of designing and assembling this basic, effective antenna. Each step is carefully explained and demonstrated.
If you can't see the video, please insert this title URL into your browser search box: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR1UXAZTucU.
Here are some comment from Joe (KI4ASK):
In this short video I demonstrate how easy it is to make a 10m dipole antenna using speaker wire. After building the antenna, I use it to make a QRP contact from my home in Atlanta to a station in Wyoming!
The formula to calculate the dipole length is L (ft) = 468 / f (MHz). My target frequency is 28.380, so 468 / 28.380 = 16.5 ft. Each element is 1/2 of that or just over 8 ft. To allow for fine tuning I recommend adding a little extra, so I used 8โ 8โ for each side.
In order to turn the wire into antenna, I used a banana plug adapter with a BNC connection. The IC-705 has a neat SWR function that I used to check the SWR before getting on the air. No tuner needed if you have a resonant antenna like this one.
I found a young ham calling CQ on 10m and answered his call using my IC-705 and new dipole antenna. Did my antenna work? Watch the video and find out!
Watch until the very end for some bloopers including my dog Thor.
73,
Joe KI4ASK
PS - Please like, share, and subscribe.
#hamradio #ic705 #qrp #sota #pota
Thanks for joining us today.
Aloha es 73 de Russ (KH6JRM).
