Roll-up J-Pole for Hiking (#454)

My ladder line J pole literally saved my bacon, TWICE!

N9TAX makes and sells great roll-up j-pole antennas.

N9TAX slim jim antennae are $25-$30 shipped. Excellent performance.

Pretty sure Dave meant SMA connectors, not 'SMC' — at least every handheld I own has an SMA anyway, from TYT to Kenwood to Motorola.

YOU'RE welcome! :)

Dr Ed Fong and his Student's make and sell the Roll-up J-Pole If you add a Tail to your HandHeld it will improve reception ( A Tail is a Quarter wave piece of wire attached to the metal of the handheld which hangs down )

I've been using Ed Fong's version of the antenna shown for a base for the past 6 years and it is inexpensive and works great.

My folding jpole is made out on adhesive tape and flexible household 1,5² mm copper wire, and calculated online

On my HT I had vastly improved performance with a 43" folding ABBREE antenna. KI7PCX

When Dave started talking about stripping the coax, I thought he was going for making a coaxial half wave. Start by removing around 24" of the outer insulation to expose the braid. You will trim it to the final length later. Then push the unstripped coax inside the braid, flaring the braid and bringing it down the outside of the unstripped coax. You can then trim the outer braid to 19" and the center conductor at 19" and have a center fed coaxial antenna. If you want to get fancy, you can start with the braid and center a bit longer and trim for best SWR, then tape or heat shrink over the braid. Also, you could make a loop at the tip of the center wire and solder it or crimp on a ring terminal for hanging the antenna. Of course you will need a connector to fit your radio. Note that a 2M quarter wave is nearly a 3/4 wave at 445 and will be an acceptable SWR. The big difference is that at 445, the take off angle will be 30 to 45 degrees from the horizon. It will still work much better than a rubber ducky antenna.

Excellent solution.

Just put a " tiger tail" on the HT

I bought one like this on Ebay several years ago. I copied it and did a club build with 10 or so members. It worked like a champ. I got mine with a bnc and bought adapters that fit the bnc to all of my handheld and mobiles. If you need an antenna, this will do the job.

Dave the topics are always so relevant and covered so well. Good on ya man. 73 de N2NLQ

Just came back from working as one of several net controls for a local weekly simplex net. Almost exclusively use a roll up j pole on a 30 ft mast. I set up with my ic-7100 and was simplexing some 35-40 miles in hilly terrain. It works as well as any other omni-directional antenna I've used. I can be set up in 6-10 minutes from stopping my vehicle. I own several.

I have an Ed Fong roll-up jpole for hiking and it works well. It came finished, tuned and I think it was less than the price mentioned in the video.

I also like my 2 m j-pole ... great antenna

Been thinking about making one for my 818

As strange as it may seem, you can build a ground plane on a connector and directly mount it to an HT and use it like that on a table or other surface. If you connect the radials to ring connectors, you can screw them onto the SO239 so it can be quickly taken down and set up again. The roll-up J-pole is easier and more compact if you have something to hang it from, but the antenna is fairly long, I believe 3/4 wavelength and offers minimal gain compared to a ground plane.

N9TAX offers these antennas. Very good quality. He also offers adapters and connectors for ht radios, extra cables, etc. He guarantees his stuff. Very reasonably priced.