Hello, my name is Caleb Shingleton (KF8EYE). Where I live I can’t get a antenna put up. So, I think I’m going to have to use a mag mount on a pizza pan or some sort of stainless steel object for a ground plane.
Do any of you have experience doing this?
I’d be using it for my Yaesu FT-1500m as a base station in my basement. I’d have the antenna outside of my home right beside my window. Then the coax would run though the window and into my radio.
Congrats on your license and call sign! I use a Comet CA-2X4SR antenna on an NMO-magmount base sitting on a 17.75” stainless steel pizza pan INSIDE the house in the corner of my office/shack. It performs very well, allowing me to hit almost all of the Chicagoland repeaters I want (if I had a bit more height I could get the rest). The antenna itself is 38” long, and I have it sitting on a shelving unit that puts the base about 8-10 feet above ground level. If you could locate the antenna on an above-ground floor of your house, even an attic, and run the coax to your station, you might be happier than messing with the outdoor antenna deployment.
Incidentally (and you might already know this), not all stainless steel is magnetic–the pan I have isn’t, but that doesn’t impact its ability to perform as a ground plane–at least as far as I can tell.
Thanks for the info! I read up on how not all stainless steel is magnetic, right before you sent that, funny enough. Glad to hear that even though it is not magnetic, it still seems to work for you!
You can also look at the temporary antenna on a mast that you lean against the house if it is an option. I used tomdo this with a 5/8 wave ground plane antenna and had amazing results. A “J” pole on some sort of mast would be good or even a roll-up “J” pole in the window or outside. Enjoy playing with the radio!
@KF8EYE If you get to the point where you can either put a section of PVC pipe up from the ground for a mast, or even mount a short section on the side of your house, this is a great video and a really fun build! It worked really well as my first 2-meter base station homebrew antenna for a long time.
That was a great video! I am going to try that for sure. My only question is, do you need to ground it in any way? I don’t want to blow all my house outlets out if a lightning strike hits it (my parents wouldn’t be to happy ). I’m guessing I could just unplug the coax if it was going to storm.
It’s always a good idea to ground an outdoor antenna for lighting protection, but if you can’t drive a ground rod, you can always unplug the coax and throw it out the window (preferable somewhere where it can’t get too wet) until the storm is over. Fun fact: I heard that they used to stick the end of the coax in a glass jar on the desk until the storm had passed!
Alrighty, thank you for the info! Wow, that’s neat they used to sick it in a glass jar. What exactly did the glass jar do? I know glass is a good insulator, so maybe that leads to the explanation? Also, is there any way you could use the copper wire for an HF antenna setup too? Of course I would have one antenna for 2M and one for different HF bands. Just an idea….
You can use a similar copper wire for an HF antenna, but it tends to get expensive, and at that size, that stiff of wire might be difficult to deal with! And, I think you’re right about the glass jar being used as an insulator!
). I’m guessing I could just unplug the coax if it was going to storm.