I'm considering a home build of a ham antenna for my backyard. My major
purpose will be to setup a packet radio rig once I get my license. Living in
a big valley in Sacramento, what size do you all recommend?

Daniel Traechin

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Look up a Jpole antenna

You can build one out of 1/2 inch plumbing supplies.

Make sure you insulate it from whatever kind of pole you use.

Short piece of 1/2" ID tubing should suffice.

I run a packet radio BBS on the internet at www.vy2xu.com.

Let me know your call when you get your licence and I will give you access via the terminal on my web site.

4000 some odd message from local and international BBSes.

73,

Alan

VY2XU
Prince Edward Island
Canada

If you have any questions on setting up your packet TNC, let me know. Been at it 20+ years.

I'm considering a home build of a ham antenna for my backyard. My major purpose will be to setup a packet radio rig once I get my license. Living in a big valley in Sacramento, what size do you all recommend?

Daniel Traechin

-+- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
@ ORIGINAL: The Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net
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* Origin: WinPoint (1:229/426.36)

On 01 Aug 2021, Alan Beck said the following...

Look up a Jpole antenna
You can build one out of 1/2 inch plumbing supplies.
Make sure you insulate it from whatever kind of pole you use.
Short piece of 1/2" ID tubing should suffice.

I run a packet radio BBS on the internet at www.vy2xu.com.

Let me know your call when you get your licence and I will give you
access via the terminal on my web site.
4000 some odd message from local and international BBSes.

73,

Alan

wow thanks for the info. I looked it up and started bookmarking. Does your board received 4000 messages a day?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
* Origin: The Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net (1:249/317)

On 01 Aug 2021, Alan Beck said the following...

Look up a Jpole antenna You can build one out of 1/2 inch plumbing
supplies. Make sure you insulate it from whatever kind of pole you use.
Short piece of 1/2" ID tubing should suffice.

I run a packet radio BBS on the internet at www.vy2xu.com.

Let me know your call when you get your licence and I will give you
access via the terminal on my web site. 4000 some odd message from local
and international BBSes.

73,

Alan

wow thanks for the info. I looked it up and started bookmarking. Does
your board received 4000 messages a day?

Currently 3338 messages on my board.

Most came in on the internet.

Access only to hams.

The key is height. The further up, the better General rules with antenna's of any kind.

Keep your nose in that book. If you have an IRLP node around you someplace we can talk "on air" via IRLP.

2618 is my node number, me thinks.

Check out what www.vy2xu.com looks like.

73,
Alan

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I'm considering a home build of a ham antenna for my backyard. My major purpose will be to setup a packet radio rig once I get my license.

It's definitely fun, but I built a nice full-wave dual-band J-pole out of copper stuff and after getting the ends and spray to keep it from rusting and whatnot from Home Depot, I ended up spending about $100. Sure you could probably find some stuff for less, but my point is.. There's this clone of a Comet antenna on HomeDepot.com - the TRAM 1480 - that gets amazing performance for the price ($74). If you search for "tram antenna" on their site, you'll find a couple variations of that one (white and black) as well as a smaller one and a bigger one. I'm not sure how the bigger one with more gain performs (I would guess better), but the 1480 is pretty great when you put it 20 or so feet up there.

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On 01 Aug 2021, Alan Beck said the following...

Look up a Jpole antenna You can build one out of 1/2 inch plumbing
supplies. Make sure you insulate it from whatever kind of pole you use.
Short piece of 1/2" ID tubing should suffice.

I run a packet radio BBS on the internet at www.vy2xu.com.

Let me know your call when you get your licence and I will give you
access via the terminal on my web site. 4000 some odd message from local
and international BBSes.

73,

Alan

wow thanks for the info. I looked it up and started bookmarking. Does
your board received 4000 messages a day?

My BBS has 3540 message accumilated over a long time. Perhaps 100 per day and 100 per day are deleted per day.

73,
Alan
VY2XU

-+- Mystic BBS v1.12 A45 2020/02/18 (Linux/64)
@ ORIGINAL: The Bottomless Abyss BBS * bbs.bottomlessabyss.net
@ ORIGINAL: (1:249/317)

--- WinPoint Beta 5 (359.1)
* Origin: WinPoint (1:229/426.36)

Daniel,

I would expect you could see that much. It's constantly going.

What's your call?

73,
Alan
VY2XU
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