Antenna Design Lab

Dipole antennas are very inexpensive, and simple to build and install. After you buy a good piece of antenna cable/coax, you can make a dipole out of most kinds of house wire, pvc pipe, electrical tape, wire ties, silicone or rtv sealant, and weed wacker string to hang it in a tree.

One could spend hundreds of dollars just for a used antenna, tower, pipe and hardware to set up an antenna tower, as well as days of planning and labor to complete the project. You could also spend around $30 at lowes for things to build a pvc pipe dipole and use weed wacker string to hang it high in a tree that performs as well or better than a commercial antenna tower setup at a comparable height. And, in one afternoon you can go to lowes, buy materials, put the antenna together and hang it in a tree without climbing it... (or finding 4 people to help you raise a tower, pour cement, weld a hinge plate and risk your life climbing anything...)

This section will show you how to build horizontal and vertical dipoles for any frequency. You can make a high performance dipole out of most kinds of wire and suspend it either vertically or horizontally.

For cb radio you can simply connect a 102" (1/4 wave length for 27mHz) section of wire to the center of the coax, and then another 102" length of wire to the shield of the coax and plug it into the cb and be on the air. You can connect the wires to the coax with wire nuts or solder them, then seal the connections with silicone and electrical tape so that water can't get down in the coax.

Once you build your dipole, you can hang it between two trees for horizontal operation, but be sure to insulate each end with wire ties. To get the antenna way up in the air, you can throw a wrench or shoot an arrow with light string attached for a light weight throw over the highest tree branch, then attach the heavier weed wacker string to the light string and pull your antenna way up in the air.

If you hang the center coax element from a high branch, and the shielded element to a lower branch, and pull the coax off to the side, to make a sideways T, you have made a vertical dipole. Vertical operation is what you will use for local cb radio operation. If you fasten your elements to a 20 foot length of pvc pipe and hang it high in a tree, you have made a nice vertical cb antenna that will match or out perform any commercial cb antenna for a smalll fraction of the cost and time.

The key to a dipole antenna is that you must keep the coax completely away from your hot and shield radiating elements. Otherwise it won't be resonant...

Fred in Evans city has a simple vertical dipole made out of mini 8 coax wire nutted to 12/2 insulated house wire. He hung the center element to a high tree branch and the shielded element to a lower tree branch and pulled the coax off away from the elements to shape a sideways T. He performs very well in the tristate area for an antenna that cost him $40 inlcuding the coax and weedwacker string, and it took him 2 hours to build and install the antenna.

Jiggaman built a vertical pvc pipe dipole and has it hung in a tree in his back yard. It took him $30 and an afternoon to build and hang the antenna.

Please keep posted to this section. There will be videos, illustrations and diagrams coming soon.

If you have any have any feedback, questions or need any help or direction, please contact Jiggaman.

You can use insulated or uninsulated wire for radials

Cb Radios must use 50 ohm coax antenna cable. 75 ohm coax is for cable tv.