Thursday, February 17, 2011

Homebrew 2 meter Amateur Radio Antenna from Ordinary TV Rabbit Ears antenna

 

Short on a good and reliable antenna for your amateur radio operation ?

Here’s how to make a simple 2 meter amateur radio antenna from ordinary tv antenna (Rabbit Ears Antenna).

Ham Radio 2 Meter Dipole Rabbit Ears Antenna

For your information these antenna can be bought from local tv store at around RM4 a piece (less than USD2).

2 Meter Rabbit Ears dipole

The best thing about these antenna that it has terminating point (screw) which you can screw in your coax cable to each dipole leg, as shown in the (rather blurry) photo.

DIY Amateur Radio 2 Meter TV Rabbit ear antenna

After that, extend the telescoping element to the desired length to match your transmitting frequency.

Vertical Polarised Dipole Ham Radio

Usually amateur radio operator working on 2 meter VHF would use antenna with vertical polarisation. In this case, you need to spread the dipole to vertical position like pictured above, connect it to your transceiver and be amaze by its transmitting (or receiving) power.

Main Advantage of This Antenna

  1. Embarassingly easy to construct
  2. Lightweight
  3. Can be adjusted to any frequency, because of its adjustable telescopic element

As you can see, the rabbit ear tv antenna can also make a good antenna during emergency situation. Its adjustable telescopic elements made it easy to reconfigure the antenna to transmit on different frequencies.

ps : You can use this dipole calculator, if you unsure about the dipole length.

http://please.name.my/105/simple-2-meter-amateur-radio-antenna-from-ordinary-tv-rabbit-ears-antenna.html

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