JUNGLE ANTENNA

usrangers84 · 08-24-2010, 13:42

Hey everyone reading this, been a few years 3+ since I have constructed or needed a jungle antenna but the time has come. I am wondering for the ground plane and the raidiating element if I have to use coax cable either rg58-or rg-6 or maybe any wire?? Could I go to a local store and just by wire? THanks all in advance for the tips. God bless

Green Light · 08-24-2010, 17:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by usrangers84

Hey everyone reading this, been a few years 3+ since I have constructed or needed a jungle antenna but the time has come. I am wondering for the ground plane and the raidiating element if I have to use coax cable either rg58-or rg-6 or maybe any wire?? Could I go to a local store and just by wire? THanks all in advance for the tips. God bless

You don't need coax (it's best), you can use copper demo firing wire. Cut five elements at 1/4 wavelengths, four for the ground plane and one for the emitter. Split the two leads all the way down (leave the insulation on) and mark the wire you're going to connect to the antenna itself on both ends. Then twist the two insulated copper wires together approximately one twist per inch. Connect the marked wire to the antenna and the unmarked to the ground plane. Works like a champ. Make sure that if your radio has an electrical antenna matching unit that you use the proper antenna base to turn it on (on the old radios, the base with the longer screw was the one to use.)

glebo · 08-25-2010, 06:50

here ya go....this should help....a pic is worth a 1K words

usrangers84 · 08-26-2010, 09:01

both of you helped. Coax is hard to find down here so im just going to use copper wire for the ground legs and the raidiating leg. then use RG cable to go from the raidiating leg to the radio. thanks all... now to translate all the in spanish hahaha.

glebo · 08-26-2010, 10:24

if no coax, you can use "twisted pair", it's basically two single strands (insulated) types of wire, 12/14 ga. twisted at about one twist per inch. Usually about 30 ft long, to get your antenna higher. It's a bit more lossy than coax, but it'll work.

You really should ground the ground planes of your antenna (the three bottom elelments), to the chassis of the radio, or to an actual ground road. Increases the effeciency of the antenna quite a bit.

NOTE: if you use twisted pair, put a knot, or tape each end of one of the wires. It sucks trying to find out which wire your going to use as ground or the one connected to the radiating elelment after you've twisted it together

good luck

albeham · 08-26-2010, 20:13

Too much of hard work, use a cell phone

usrangers84 · 08-29-2010, 08:09

Why us HF when you can use a cell phone.... hahah espically in south america. I do have enough RG cable for the 30 ft transmitting line, just trying to make the legs out of copper wire.

Electron · 05-11-2011, 09:19

You should be aware of the ease of tracking a cell phone signal and capturing unencrypted audio from thin air.

The first thing people tend to do when disembarking an aircraft is turn on their cell phones. As soon as the phone registers on the network, that action can be captured by FIS, and most of the time it is. Now they have your ESN and IMEI. When you move from tower to tower, you can be tracked.

Some third world countries use antiquated cell tower equipment that still works. Some of that equipment does not encrypt the cell audio signal and sometimes both sides of the conversation can be picked up using a radio receiver that can pick up the signal in the cellular frequency range.

Dalik · 07-17-2013, 17:38

Can radiating/ground elements of jungle antenna be constructed of Telescoping rod antennas, for frequency changes?
Thank you.

glebo · 07-18-2013, 08:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalik

Can radiating/ground elements of jungle antenna be constructed of Telescoping rod antennas, for frequency changes?
Thank you.

Yes, not a bad idea. Just make sure ya got good contact with all your connections...

Most telescoping tv/radio type antennas are made for recieve, so the metal quality may degrade your transmitting efficiency, not be as good as copper and such..

69stang · 01-13-2014, 17:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by glebo

You really should ground the ground planes of your antenna (the three bottom elelments), to the chassis of the radio, or to an actual ground road. Increases the effeciency of the antenna quite a bit.

good luck

I've been experimenting with the Jungle Antenna a bit lately and was discussing with some guys at work ways to, in theory, directionalize it or attempt to increase gain. Has anybody ever accomplished this? Also, with grounding elements grounded to the chassis of the radio, how is that accomplished without it throwing the measurements off for the 1/4 wavelength cuts?

PTF Guy · 01-14-2014, 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by usrangers84

Hey everyone reading this, been a few years 3+ since I have constructed or needed a jungle antenna but the time has come. I am wondering for the ground plane and the raidiating element if I have to use coax cable either rg58-or rg-6 or maybe any wire?? Could I go to a local store and just by wire? THanks all in advance for the tips. God bless

Pretty simple as others have noted and they work quite well. Element length: L=234/f where L = individual wire element length in feet, f = Operating frequency in MHz.
Some pix and examples here: http://www.n6cc.com/antenna-system-ideas