VHF and UHF antennas

DIY Vertical antennas

If you want a simple omni-directional antenna, it's hard to beat a vertical. Advantageous over a dipole for focusing the signal more toward the horizon, they are simple to build and are usually sufficient for most vhf/uhf needs. There are lots of sites on the internet telling you how to calculate the length of the elements so I won't duplicate that here. My technique is to start with a quarter wavelength for the frequency you want, then connect an antenna analyzer (or in recent years, a nano-VNA) and trim until it resonates where you like.

Here's a design I came up with recently. It uses a chassis mount SO-239 connector with the elements soldered directly on. First I solder on the vertical element, then I solder on a piece of 1/2 copper pipe to go around it as a strain relief. Then solder/bolt on the radials. At the end, I fill the copper pipe up with epoxy. This gives a nice strain relief and has proven quite robust out in the elements. BTW it is important to at least paint the epoxy to protect it from UV.