HomeBrew 1/4 Wave Groundplane

For packet stations where line of site is assured or very short distances are involved, (a mile or two?), consider home-brewing a quarter wave ground-plane.

This 446Mhz antenna is about a foot tall for 446mhz and cost about $6 in parts, not counting the coax cable. The parts cost more than that but yielded half a dozen antennas.

There is no problem hanging this from a tree. On 2m and 6m the materials for the ground plane might need to be stiffer than what you can get away with for 440.

This antenna was constructed using 10AWG solid ground wire ($22 for 50 feet on Amazon) and a SO239 chassis connector.

KC3IBN is using this antenna for a 1.5 mile TARPN point to point link near Danville, PA. The other end of the link is a Comet GP-15 tri-band vertical whose 6m side is also a packet link.

Article about 1/4 wave ground planes is here: SO-238-Ant