Ham Radio - A 6 meter cage dipole using window line.

I built "flowerpot" antenna for 6m at 52MHz and strapped it to a plumbing vent pipe near the 16 foot peak of our home. I loaded all the FM repeaters within 100 miles of our location and started calling. I received squelch tails from all but two of the repeaters with no contacts. I had just finished one of the tests and the repeater owner came back with, "HEY! DON'T GO AWAY! IT'STOO QUIET OUT THERE!" So I did make one contact. The SWR was below 1.5:1 throughout the entire band, but there were two "bumps" on either side to 52MHz where the SWR was a bit outside the profile. Now I want to build a horizontal polarized antenna for the other modes and when DX window cracks open.

This is a real neat project, Kevin! Bet there is nobody on YouTube building and explaining more amateur radio antennas than you. Hope your back is feeling better soon! Many thanks!

Ship to Shore stations used to use caged antennas. I'm off to look out some hardware now, thanks Kevin for another inspirational video.

The speech fragments were probably meteor scatter. In the future, try running FT8 on 50.313 MHz. I run 40 watts to a Par OA-50 loop, the typical "closed band" tropo reaches out to 250 - 275 mile reliably. There are 6 meter beacons between 50.06 and 50.08 MHz, too. I have been on 6 meters since 1967. A great band and full of surprises. I have built the same dipole design in the past and will confirm that it will play. CU further down the log! 73, Keith, WB2VUO here near Buffalo, NY in grid FN02ox

+100 points for 6m. Great video man.

I knew there was a good reason for procrastinating the start of my attic dipole. Thanks for this!

Nicely done Kevin

Building and experimenting with antennas never stops!

Nice antenna. Was considering a cage dipole - nice to see SWR results. Thanks for sharing.

I like the ladder line method for a cage dipole. For 6 m I made an old aluminum lawn chair loop and 3d printed the mount and end caps.

Hope your back is better soon! I have been having trouble with mine for years. I was trying to hang a wire antenna a few weeks ago and had it hung on a limb. I jerked it to get it off the limb and the limb broke and I ended up on my back in the mud. It didn't help my already messed up back but I got the antenna up! At least now I can sit on a heating pad and work HF and listen to shortwave!

Please feel better! 6 meters! Thank you for this! I need to build one and get on 6 meters

Hi Kevin thank you for making the video. I'm going to try this antenna out. I hope you back feels better soon.

Very cool. Thanks for the instruction! I built a squalo for 6m a couple of years ago. When 6 opened up, it worked like a champ. But, as you said, not a very portable antenna. Hope you are well! 73 de K2CJB

Great Video, Kevin !!

That was awesome Kevin. Thanks for sharing the wisdom

Ed Fong did studies on PVC pipe for his antennas - He said to get the stuff from Lowes. Email him and ask him to call you. He's a great guy.

Very Interesting I've learned something tonight about board band thank Kevin.

Wonderful project. Thanks for the great videos.

an interesting one to try would be the difference in running it as a cage then disconnecting the outer end commoning & having each core slightly different lengths just commoned at the centre (say 54", 53", 52" & 51" fan dipole style) to see if that is better for bandwidth or not.