I finally got the opportunity to go on vacation. We ended up in the high sierras at a beautiful campsite. During some downtime I was able to get out the old Radio Shack scanner and listen in on the airwaves. I have been itching to try out my new antenna I built from used parts. This is the 3rd iteration of this antenna and I find they work well indoors. This version is a hardened version made for the outdoors with thicker antenna wire and shrink tubing for durability. I found the instructions on how to make this style of J pole antenna over 10 years ago on Instructables.com. It can be found here.

Build:

The antenna consists of plastic coated dual 16awg conductor wire used for old style outdoor TV antennas. I found a spool of the stuff at a local thrift store. In previous versions I had used the thinner 22-24awg antenna wire that can be purchased at any big box store. This antenna worked ok, but the plastic coating was thin and prone to nicks. This is not ideal for outdoor applications.

The antenna wire is cut to 48″ long, and a notch is cut at 12″ from the bottom.

I used an old CATV balun again salvaged from a thrift store to connect the two sides of the antenna to the output. The leads of the antenna wire were soldered to the leads on the balun and shrink tubing was applied. I purchased a female F-connector to Female BNC. This would connect the antenna to the scanner.

At the top I sewed a bit of 550 cord into a loop and sealed it with hot glue and shrink tubing. This allows me to connect the antenna to a carabiner and pull it up to a higher location.

I was also able to find a 25′ section of 50ohm coax cable with male BNC on either end about a year ago. I have been sitting on this waiting for this project to come together.

Performance:
I am an amateur when it comes to radio things, so I don’t have any gear to test the antenna with hard numbers. The scanner I used is a Radio Shack 20-404. The antenna was approximately 15′ off the ground in a tree.

Here is a list of frequencies I was able to hear while sitting in camp. The weather was excellent, no clouds, mid 70s. I was able to hear as far south as Los Angeles. The transmission was intermittent but I was able to make out some of the conversation.

133.3330 Mhz – Probably law enforcement in Sonoma, conversation was about SR 29 and a vehicle description

172.5875 Mhz – BLM (Central California District)

457.6000 Mhz – Marine Frequency Shipboard 2-way

483.5875 LARTCS 1U (Los Angeles Regional Tactical Communications System)

113.2000 VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) Pallisades (SWR)

152.8850 Business 3

47.5000 CATV Audio Carrier Signal for Channel 13

127.9500 Oakland Approach + Departure control for Truckee and Lake Tahoe airports

153.9050 Mutual Aid Frequency

156.5500 Marine VHF Channel 11 (Port Operations)

467.1875 UHF Business Channel 61 or 3

For an antenna made from used parts I feel like the performance is pretty good. I was able to hear a transmission close to 400 miles away. The antenna coils up and fits in a case with the scanner and lead cables with no issues. Hats off to randyd for the instructions.