With our current ongoing situation … This gives me and possibly yourself a lot of time to think things up ????? Well this is one of these moments / ideas ……. !
Noticing that Jo (M0JOZ) had a growing ex drinking can collection growing in the kitchen see Figure 1.
I wondered what else could be done with a old can apart from storing things in it ?
Listening to recent talks on various repeater nets re antenna setups and hand held use,
My imagination kicked in……At this point I really should have stopped etc…..
I decided to remake a idea from the 11 Meter days (yes CB radio) eg. a mag mount on a biscuit tin, and make a mount for a mobile antenna that could be used indoors or out temporary or otherwise the focus is on the mount not the antenna being used.
So gathering a few other odds & ends:- specifically in this case a Chassis mount
SO-239 & BNC-F sockets, approx. 0.5 meter of coax and 4 x 1 meter wires used for the ground plane (strictly speaking a minimum of a 1/4 wave for 2mtr ie. 48cm could be used), And finally some Glass beads found in Garden Centre to add a little weight to the base.
Figure 1.
After marking and drilling out holes for the connectors and the ground plane wires,
I fitted the connectors to the coax through the can making a couple loops with the coax to form a crude choke…
Figure 2.
After that is was just a case of connecting the ground wires, in my case (just because I have some) I used pop rivets. Screws & nuts etc could also be used or even plug & socket setup eg Banana connectors for the ground plane wires.
Figure 3.
Finale test. Picture below shows quick test setup of mobile antenna in loft I managed to access GB3RE via UV-5R Baofeng which would normally not be possible indoors with its own stock antenna. – showing the mobile mount & antenna offer some gain to the rig.
Figure 4.
I hope this article will give you some ideas & inspiration to help you construct your own antenna mounts…
Thank you for making it to the end of this page…. hi 🙂
73 de Gary M5YRG
BHRC 