Following the death of my cheap fibreglass tri-band collinear, I decided to have a go at constructing a simple dual band antenna for use at home.
I was looking for something that was vertical, omnidirectional and with good gain that I could make quickly and easily. The answer came from Sean, M3FVB in the form of his excellent article on building a 8db collinear.
The instructions are easy to follow and after about a hour I ended up with an assembled antenna. I attached the wires to a 5M fibreglass “roach pole” and set about tuning the SWR. I soon had a 1.2:1 match on 2M and also a 1:1 match on 70cm. All very good.
Outside, I mounted the construction on a 12′ pole and fixed it at ground level at the side of the house.
Reports on 2M and 70cm have been excellent even with the top of the antenna only 2′ above the roof of the house. In fact, I like it so much that I’m going to have a go at building a more permanent antenna that can go on the roof from an old “silver rod” style CB antenna that was donated to me.
The link supplied does not work
Unfortunately I don’t have any control over external website.
Here’s an archived version of the page that I found for you.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160118170143/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/s.amesbury/M3FVB/8db%20collinear.htm
Matt
Great article de M3FVB, 2E0BAX, M0GIA.
I did this back in the late 80’s early 90’s when I had a novice ticket just after they did away with the CW requirements.
Everyone said it would not make a difference but I surprised them by hitting local repeaters with 3 bars higher than a single J-Pole.
In essences this was a reason I dropped out of HAM radio because there was no forward thinking and experimentation with in my area.
I am not claiming this as my own because everyone has those thoughts and some people have that innate ability to think outside the box.
Those traits are what propels radio forward and lets it not stagnate to only proven methods.
I was active in SkyWarn For a bit in N Central Tx in Wichita County Texas.