I have a J pole duel band antenna in my attic,  it's used on my scanner
right now, I made that by the plans that were in QST a few years ago though,
cost me about $15 to make and works very well though for 2 meters the MFJ
one seems to have it beat by just a little bit.  Note though, if you wanted
to make 1 like the MFJ one, but home mate, you could probably do it for
around $5, the welding rod antenna is about what the MFJ one is, maybe a
little different, but that's pretty close.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kenneth Lee" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible VHF Radios


> My first ht was the IC-02AT (great radio) and a friend made me a 1/4 wave
> antenna from welding rod and So-239 chassis connector.  I soon upgraded
> the
> antenna to a J-pole made of 1/2" copper pipe..  I once made one of these
> j-poles from thin wall conduit.  I slipped a wrench over the pipe and slid
> it down about 57 inches and bent it 90 dg, slipped over about 3 inches and
> bent it up and cut off the short end at 19 inches.  I clamped on the coax
> with a couple of hose clamps and used a block of wood with holes in it (3
> inches apart) to keep the J from springing out.  Great quick and dirty
> emergency antenna that costs less than $10.
>
> 73 -Ken -N5SWR
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blind-Hams For blind ham radio operators
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Louis Kim Kline
> Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 6:08 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Accessible VHF Radios
>
>
> Hi to all.
>
> There are a variety of ways to get on VHF.  When I was just getting going
> about 25 years ago, I decided to buy the mobile radio first, but it took
> some time to get a decent VHF antenna up.  So I cut a vertical dipole for
> 2
> meters, attached a convenient length of coax and hung the affair up in the
> front bedroom.  Definitely, not as good as an outside antenna, but it got
> me into most of the local and regional repeaters in the area.  Also, I've
> found that a quarter wave mag mount for 2 meters placed on a large metal
> surface like a refrigerator (even the small ones like you use in a college
> dorm work very well) can be a quick way to get on both two and 70 cm.  A
> quarter wave on two meters is almost a three quarter wave on 70 cm, and it
> is close enough that most HTs will swallow the VSWR on the 70 cm
> side.  It's kind of like using a 40 meter dipole on 15 meters.
>
> There is a similar relationship between 6 and 2 meters.  It depends upon
> the design of the antenna, but I discovered a long time ago that the
> Larsen
> 5/8 wave two meter antennas would load as a quarter wave on 6 meter FM
> with
> a surprisingly low VSWR, as long as you placed the antenna on a
> sufficiently large metal surface to act as a ground plane on 6 meters
> (i.e.
> at least a quarter wave of metal surface in some direction).  For a long
> time my 6 meter FM antenna was nothing more than a Larsen five-eighths
> wave
> antenna sitting on top of a large metal cabinet in an upstairs bedroom.
>
> 73, de Lou K2LKK
>
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