ANTENNAS
RubberDuckies
may
be
great
in
thebathtub,butthey
may
notalways
be
whatyou
need
to
punchthatsignalthrough
to
therepeater.
W
lfep
takes
us
from
therubberducky
to
othersimple,
ye
teffectiveportableantennas
for
our
HTs
.
The
J-Pole
Antenna
Aroll-it-up,stuff-it-in-your-pocket,
portable
alternative
to
the
rubber
ducky
antenna
BY
LEW
McCOY"
WllCP
This
is
notthe
easiest
antenna
to
photograph,
but
essentiallyitisthecoiledupfeedcoaxwith
a
fittingfortherig.Itlookslikeonecontinuouslength
of
twinlead,
but
actually,refertofig.
1.
whichshowstheelectricaldetail.
As
po
inted
out
inthe
1ext
,ifyoudon'twanttobuild
your
own,AntennasWestsells
a
comp
letedunit.
A
ll
ofour
2
meterusersaremore
thanfamiliarwiththe
so
-called
"rubber
ducky
"antennacommonly
usedonhandheldtransceivers.Ihave
no
ideawho
or
iginallycameupwiththe
name
,
but
it
certainlyhasbeenthe
way
to
describe
theseantennas.Usuallythean
tennaconsistsofwire,sometimesaquar
terwavelength,
19
inches(2meters)long.
woundaroundaflexibleform.Theform
andthewindingthenareencasedinaflexiblerubber-type
shield-hence
the
name
"rub
be
r."Thisantenna
has
afiningwhich
mates
with
oneon
topof
the
band
heldtransceiver.Thereis
no
real
ground
return.
andas
far
as
impedances,et
c;
are
concerned,justforgetthatfa
cet
of
this
mostpopu
larantenna.Itisastrange
phenomenon
inamateurradiothattheabsolutelypoorestantenna
one
could
use
is
also
isbyfarthe
mostpopular
antenna.In
tact,
itis
imposs
ibleto
say
exactly
how
bad
therubber
ducky
antennais,
say,
compared
toahalf-wavelengthdipole.Thisantennais
so
popu
lar
becausein
most
casesitisadequate
and
easy
touse.Themainreasonforthepopularity
of
therubber
ducky
isnotintheantennaitsell,
but
becausethesignalthatis
sentout
is
more
thanstrongenoughtocapturearepeater
and
to
producecontacts
.
However
,
as
Shakespearewrote,thereisthe
rub
.To
be
veryhonest,though,therubber
duckyis
very
inadequate
,
and
often
one
failstocapturetherepealer
or
to
even
ho
ldit,
when
one
reatlyneedsit.
"TechnicalEditor,CO,1500W.Idaho
st..
SilverCity,
NM
88061e-maif:mccoy@zianet
.com
32•CO•
January
1998
We
have
allexperiencedthisoccurrence,
so
thereis
no
pointinbelaboringit.
A
fewyears
back
when
IwasvisitingaclubinPalm
Springs
,California,some
of
the
amateurs
therehad
comeup
with
and
weretalking
about
aportable,roll-up-andput-in-your-pockettype
of
antennacalleda
J
pole
.
sometimes
referredto
as
a
J
beam.Since
thenI'vealwayskept
one
close
at
hand
and
take
one
with
me
when
I
travel.I'll
describe
itshortly
so
youcan
make
yourown.
New
Mexico,where
I
live,is
an
areaofnationalparks
and
forests
and
manymountainareaswithcorrespondingdeepravines,arroyos,andingeneralratherwild
terrain,with
bears
,mountainlions,rat
tlesnakes,and
soon
.
We
alsohave
many
people-hikers
,campers,prospectors,andthe
like-who
canand
do
manageto
get
lost.Whenthathappens,search-and
rescueteams
go
outtofindthem.Ithasbeendeterminedthattheuse
01
amateurradio,andtheuse
of
repeaters,isagreataidinstayingintouchwithanddirectingthesearchers.Itisalsotruethat
many
of
Say
You
Saw
ftIn
CO
-.t'
D.....a
M.\TCH
I'tlICIE
SOll:5.
58LI
$ I ;
~
. 9 S
--
U8;
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2ai
&
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9.95
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'l
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"'
\t
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SO
MUlT
IMATCH
UNUN_
$ 6 9 "
~
eEY
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8
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.
500
!'M
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·H
USO
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~
.....
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es
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"
~ 9 9 S
$1;9,95'
CtFlClE3S
00
REAOERSERVICeCARD
U
NUN
S
-.t'1lAHCt
_TCH
"""'"
.
""
-
lOOU&
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- ,
~
~
SOll:
l2
.5tl
--
on'S.StIll
!"AIIT
NO
.
PfUCE
50U:12.SQ_
0;.-
C....-cI
Y
ag
;
e-m
.
,l
-HBSO
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i9
eam
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$1;9,95
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7 S
U
_
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ipo
i
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l.S
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_
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00u
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o ;
~
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&
0uMl
LoOp2:1-l-i91oo$69.95
""""'
_Folded
o;p...
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,,-;Odic
9Mm
-.,H1BM
200
-
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SOU2OOU
OftCent
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.:1-H9r\J200-
$69
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I(w
Anten
".
T"
......
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lOllP....io
'h
c:
888m
llc
.
l . a d
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e
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L
i
n .
3000
AibbonF
olded
Dipole
Oft
Ce<>
"",
Fed
An_
nM
--
TWli
n
l.Nd
A
hoM
bi<'
llc
V·
e-m
Anle
n
".
. ~ ~
2:1-HOUSO
2:1
-HOUIOO
I.S
J-
HV75_
.
:l·HCUso
_9,l-HU
SO
Try
it
at
no
risll:
whatsoever.Find
out
how
these
Balunsand
Ununs
canmake
your
systems
transmitfurther,
put
more
power
to
your
antenna.
and
get
youmore
signalstrength.
Our
Guarantee:
No
Questionsasked,
1
00"10
moneyb«:k
guarMltfM
anytitnCI
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if
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uns
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toperformexactlyaspromised
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do
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you
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not
en
joy
the
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and
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Youhaveevery
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CallToll
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AMICdN
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iggsAvenue,
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C O m m ;
f
r ~
to
E1c
Nl
ll
em;•
•
in
c.
1963
TEL:
(7141850-4660·
FAX
:(714)856-t163
Dr
.
JMy
Sevick,
W2FMI
,
researched.
experimentedandwoundover
1000
BalunsandUnunstransformers
fOf
useinAmateur
Rad
io
and
used
over
1
mile
of
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20
year
period.
The
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walt
are
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new
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2
Kw
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TO
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.
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efficient
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to
50
Mhz
Ba
luns
andUnuns.Hiswo
lt
isalso
fe
atured
in
over
20
articles.and
3
books.
The
mO'\
Iaccurateclockon
Earth
.These
smallclocks
tunc
into[hera
dio
SI
gnal
emit
tedbytheUSAtomicClockin
Colorado-
V'
which
deviates
lessthen
J
secondovera
millionyear
pe
ri
od
.
Theysynchromre
them-
~
selves
automatica
ll
y
10
th
eexactsame
tim
e
CD
daily
and
adjusl
even
fordaylightsavings
lime
and
leapseconds.Youcanno
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have(he
w
o
dd's
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oM
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be
incontroloflimeorstartyour
da
y.
These
precisionZEITtimepiecesan:
enrinfl'r«l
in
Germlln)
'
and
arc
e l l s ~
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inredro-
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ntrolledtechnology.Just
SC
Ithe
time
zone
and
the
huiltin
microchip
does
the
res
t.
ZEIT-
accurate!
pre
cise!reli
ab
le!
&
full)automatic
BAL
UNS
ZEH
.-\t
omicWallCl
od.
"'llhIhcrmorJlel
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andhygromerer
gmn
f
or
homeoroffice
-c-l
AA.LargeI
r,
O n
l ~
S99
NEW
&
REVOLUTIONARY
BALUNs
and
UNUNs
ZUlo\lomi(:
\
\l
lt
hilh
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o r t d
· ~
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ural
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..
alehnh
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~
spinat
RO
lime<;
ils
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'hlpatthepreci""lime.S
h'x
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f
or
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Set.s
it",lf
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and
.00
...
date
..
jlh
second
hand.
Ml
nen
llens.blaeli
or
..
hill'dial&Iealher
band.
Onl)
S249
theamateurnewcomerstothehobbywho
getinvolvedinthesearchandrescuehave
little,jfany,technicalkn
ow
ledgeofanten
nasandsignal
pr
opagation.Thesepeoplearebasicallycommunicators.
Irecalloneinstan
ce
wherethislackofknowledgeshowed
up
,andstartlinglyso.
I
was
outwitha
group
ona
sea
rchandtheamateuroperatorI
wa
steamed
up
withtriedtobringupt
he
repeater(which
wa
s
many
milesaway)withhishandheld
andrubber
ducky
antenna.Hecouldnot
getaresponseandthentoldmethat
we
would
ha
vetohike
up
am
ounta
intoget
aclearshot.(I
was
not
about
toclimbamountainatmyage!)Iduginto
my
pock
etand
took
outmyfolded
up
J
antenna,reached
up
andhungoneendonthelimb
ofatree,andtoldhimtoremovetherub-
Thisantenna,made
by
ArrowAntennas
and
de
scr
ibedinthetext,
is
an
excellent
perf
or
mer
.Thelongestuprightele
ment
is
the
J
po
le
ha
lf
wave;toitsleftist
he
450MHz
J
pole;
and
thematching
quar
-terwaveis
at
thefarlett.
Say
You
Saw
It
In
CO
CIRCLE
36
ONREADERSERY
",71
,..,
0'-
--
--
--
---
January
1998
•
CO
•
33
-
impedance,andattheotherendofthe
stub,where
we
attachthe50ohmcoax,thereisamuchlower
impedance-right
down
at50ohms,whatwewantfor
our
ha
ndheld.Thatiswhat
weoo
witha
J
pole.
Table
I
showsvariousgainsof
co
m
montyusedantennason2meters.Fig.1showst
he
basicantennasetup.Endfeedinga
ha
lf-wavedipoleresultsin
averyhighimpedan
ee-m
uc
htoohightoattachcoaxdirectlytotheend.Thequarter-
wave
sectionstepsthisimpedancedown
to
the
50
ohmvicinity,makingitpos
sibletouse
50
ohmfeed.This
J
poleismadefrom300ohmTV
twinlead.
apiecethatis
54
1
/2
incheslong.Studythedrawinginfig.1at(A)and(B).
(B)showswhattheelectricalcircuitofthe
J
poleactuallyis.Thelongsinglewireis
the
ha
lfwaveplusthequarter
wa
ve,whiletheshortleadistheothersectionofthequarterwave.Thequarterwaveisshort
ed
toget
he
rattheverybottom,andthe
coaxconductorsaresoldered
10
thequarter-wavestub
11/2
inches
up
fromthebottom.Thesedimensionswillprovidethe
beslmatchinthe146MHz.range.How
ever,theantennadimensionswillw
ar\<,
wellacrosstheentireband.
At(A)infig.
1
we
havetheactualtwinleadantenna.
Measuredownthetwin
leadon
one
oftheconductors.36inches,and
atthatpointcutthewireandremove
'/2
inch
01
thewire
below
thecut.Actuallyre
move
that
1/2
inchofwire.Skinoffa
'/2
inchofinsulationonbothsidesofthetwin
leadatthebottomandthentwistthetwo
Thisis
a
close-up
of
thebasemounting
of
the
Arrow
J
pol
e.Thefeedg
oe
stot
he
s
ec
tion
on
theleft.Thebasedesignisreallyoutstanding.Standingwavechecksshow
ed
that
my
B
ird
wattmeter
never
left
1.2
to
1
acrosstheentire
2
meter
and
450MHzbands.This
isa
verytineperformingantenna.
ExactlyWhat
is
A
J
Pole?
Soexactlywhatisa
J
pole?
The
J
poleisahalf-wavelengthantennawhichisfedat
oneendviaaquarterwavelengthof
tw
inlead;attheotherendofthisquarterwave
oftwinleadisthe50ohmcoax,which
goes
totherig.Alittleantennaknowledgeatthispointwon'thurt,sohere
goes
.Ahalf-wavedipole,fedatthecenterofthehalfwave,
hasacenter-fedimpedanceinthevicini
tyof50to70ohms.However,whenwe
trytoendfeedthishalfwavelength,the
impedan
ce
g
oe
s
up
toseveralthousand
ohms
.Therefore,
we
canuseaquarterwavelength
"stub"
tomatchthishigh
berduckyandpluginmy
J
pole.Hedidjustthat,andtherepealer
came
boomingback.Ihaveneverseensuchamazementandastonishmentonthefaceofanama
teur.SincethattimeIhave
convincedmany
amateurstocarryrolled-up
J
poleantennasintheirpocket.
Whenever
Itravel,
I
alwaysmakesure
I
havesuchanan
tennaalong.Ihaveyetto
be
stymiedbyabadmotelorhotelroomk
eep
ingmeout
ofthelocalrepeater.Thebeautyofthissimpleantennaisthat
itisrelativelycheaptobuild(itonlycosts
afewdollars)oreasytobuyready-made.
AntennasWest(theyrunanadherein
CO)
hasa
J
polemadefromtwinleadthatisveryinexpensive.Includedinthisarti
cleisaphotooftheirunitin
case
youdon't
want
tobuildyourown.•Specialpricingonour222MHzand
903MHztransverters.
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our
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e
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for
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CIRCl
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NEW
ColorfulPrefix
WorldAlap
.\
·
ORDE
R
TOL
LF
REE
1-
888-905-2966
IvS
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On
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24
.2142@
compu
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om
Radio
Amateur
Callbcek
o
1695
Oak
Street
0
FE-:
Lakewood,
~ J
08701
CI
RCl
E47ONREADERSERVICECARD
34•
ca.
Janu
ary
1998
Say
You
Saw
It
In
ca
of 00
Roll Up J Pole Antenna
485 Reads
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