17-foot Chopsticks - Chinese Take-out 20 Meter Groundplane
Outdoors On The Air
5,076 views
Can you build a 20 meter antenna using multiple 17-foot telescopic whips? This experiment tests if coupling budget hardware works.
Portable ham radio operators are constantly looking for ways to improve field performance. I purchased several inexpensive telescopic whip antenna units from an online site to see if they could be coupled into a functional array. This project is for anyone interested in budget-friendly antenna design and trying unconventional setups in the field.
I walk through the assembly process and measure the SWR performance of this custom array. By the end, you will see the practical results of using multiple whips and understand whether this DIY antenna approach is worth replicating for your own portable station.
Subscribe for weekly antenna experiments and ham radio project breakdowns. Let me know in the comments if you have ever tried coupling whips for a custom 20 meter antenna array.
0:00 A Bold Idea for Portable Ham Radio Antennas
1:03 Unveiling the Frankenstein Antenna Contraption
4:03 Connecting the Pieces: Adapters and Mounts
7:30 Testing the Setup in the Rain
8:49 Tuning for the 20 Meter Band
11:55 Putting the Antenna to the Airwaves Test
Tom VA3WBA's YouTube channel "Keeping Connected": @radioastronomy2001
20 Comments
I assume you calibrated out the coax for the tests.🙂👍
I’ve made two of these GP antennas for portable 4m and 6m mounted on one of the stout telescopic GRP poles. The 4m version uses 1.2m telescopic whips and will also cover 2m and at a pinch 70cm although the centre frequency is a bit low.
If I was making one of these as a more permanent antenna on the lower bands I’d experiment with these whips to find the correct dimensions etc, then build something more robust from stainless steel or aluminium tubing.
Elevating the antenna off the ground and angling the radials down around 45deg not only gives the antenna a near perfect 50ohm impedance but also lowers the radiation angle which is really what we want.👍
17-foot Chopsticks - Chinese Take-out 20 Meter Groundplane
Outdoors On The Air
5,076 views
Can you build a 20 meter antenna using multiple 17-foot telescopic whips? This experiment tests if coupling budget hardware works.
Portable ham radio operators are constantly looking for ways to improve field performance. I purchased several inexpensive telescopic whip antenna units from an online site to see if they could be coupled into a functional array. This project is for anyone interested in budget-friendly antenna design and trying unconventional setups in the field.
I walk through the assembly process and measure the SWR performance of this custom array. By the end, you will see the practical results of using multiple whips and understand whether this DIY antenna approach is worth replicating for your own portable station.
Subscribe for weekly antenna experiments and ham radio project breakdowns. Let me know in the comments if you have ever tried coupling whips for a custom 20 meter antenna array.
0:00 A Bold Idea for Portable Ham Radio Antennas
1:03 Unveiling the Frankenstein Antenna Contraption
4:03 Connecting the Pieces: Adapters and Mounts
7:30 Testing the Setup in the Rain
8:49 Tuning for the 20 Meter Band
11:55 Putting the Antenna to the Airwaves Test
Tom VA3WBA's YouTube channel "Keeping Connected": @radioastronomy2001