Dual-Band (UHF-VHF) J-Pole Ham Radio Antenna

grabcad

I built one of these using the dimensions from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Antenna book and those are the dimensions I used to draw this up. They are no secret and can be found on-line. Use little bolts through the straps and through the wood mount. Sweat all the tubing connections. Cut the end off of a piece of coax and strip it back a bit. The center conductor goes to one of the screws/bolts in the strap that goes around the big radial. The shielding goes to the smaller one. The antenna is tuned by sliding it up or down in relation to the mount and straps. Once tuned, sweat the tubes to the straps so it stays put. I don't have a tuner/analyzer so don't know what the SWR is, but others that have built them report less than 1.5:1 on VHF and a little more on UHF, IIRC. Not sure now with the prices of copper as high as they are, but when I built this, I got enough tubing and fitting to do two for just a bit over $20 US. The antenna really works very well.