Improvised Field Comms - The Jungle Antenna

Moral of the story is the box it came in is a great place to keep the rubber duckie permanently

Nice video. A couple notes: 1. Any wire that has a jacket of it has a V-factor. It detunes the antenna. Makes it lower in freq. The 210 takes up the difference. and 2. the fold over even though it is folded at the 17.x" point, that extra wire is still included in the length unless you short it back on to the main wire. Cal from DX Commander talks about it in his videos. Again, nice video. Great idea on the 1/4 wave ground plane antenna. 👍

People don't realize, but the AAR is the best part for learning lol.

SH 21-76 and FM 21-76 (Army Publications) explains this antenna. We also called it a Jungle 292. (Two niner two). Between the positive vertical radial and the 3 ground radials it looks like our Army 292 antenna.

Interesting video, 35 years ago we used the same antenna with a PRC-77 radio. A much simpler antenna was the AT-984a long wire antenna.. The PRC-77 tuned 30-76.95 mhz freq. The long wire must be 5 wave lengths long.. At 30 mhz the antenna must be 150'. Higher freqs, works equally well with the 150' length. The key is the horizontal long wire must be one meter from the ground. Super quick set up. Unreel the 984, point it in the direct of the distant radio set. Put the fork lug under the prc-77, 10 ft whip base scew down the AB-591 base. Again one meter off the ground with the long wire. No AT-984a. Substitute 150' WD-1/tt commo wire.

Former army radio guy just getting into ham. Love you channel. Love to try and make contact with you from here in Oklahoma.

GREAT JOB! I followed your VERY CLEAR instructions, and I built a VHF, 2m, 1/4 wave, ground plane "jungle antenna" using a 3-foot piece of bamboo, 14 AWG-stranded wire and all the other recommended parts. It works great with a SWR of 1.2. Mahalo Nui (thank you very much). WH6GTC.🤙🤙

After watching the member video, I mocked one of these up quickly, and have an option. If you switch from 20 gauge wire to 14 gauge, you don't need the spreader(s). It is stout enough to keep a 45* angle without any support, and makes a stronger hanger/radiator as well. S-clips can be eliminated too. A bit more field expedient

I use an Abbree 42 inch antenna up a tree with a 20 foot SMA cable to my UV5R, hooked to a Baofeng mic for more gain, a 19 inch counterpoise wire hooked to the UV5R back screw, and custom squelch via CHIRP software for max sensitivity. Still experimenting with what little I have, but so far this works excellent.

This is a great skill for any Ham to be able to construct a make shift antenna for any band. The flash cards are an awesome idea to prompt you also.

You really do honest evaluations. I am Impressed.

Adjustable Trekking Poles, I have the Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork 130-100cm when separated gives you three light weight pieces to work with, instead of tree branches. They have measurement markings on them and you could add more for more detailed lengths. I am a ultralight camper and I think a little bit of research within that community you could really benefit from weight savings and improvising the trekking pole sections with a little electrical tape. Just a thought, hope this helps. Thanks for your work on all this!

Excellent building from your first field expedient antenna. Job well done. Looking forward to more.

Well done putting theory into practice Gaston, great results yet again.👍 I'm gonna have to start measuring up body parts now.🤓👍

You didn't mess that video up at all! We all have our low trees !

1000% a proper crimper and crimps make all the difference. I like the one that have a little adhesive in them too. Here's my trick for using smaller gauge wiring in terminals too big, strip double or triple the length length, fold accordingly and then crimp.

Great series! I haven't built one of these style antennas in probably 30 years! Now I want to again! Thank you Sir!

yes the wirefy stuff is great stuff. They make a bunch of stuff and they work very well.

Great video as always. Did the cobra head connector experiment to create a 6m dipole for my HT that works on 6m. It set off the emergency lights in the building. Lol. But at least I won't have to buy a 6m ht antenna since it hits the repeater well and the reports say it's not full clear, but very readable. As far as wire, one of the ways I get a lot of wire is looking out for people throwing out vacuum cleaners and floor scrubbers. They're usually 20ft in length, and in most cases you get two wires. The issue however is that you may need to test them since they maybe broken (hence them.throwing it out) and if you need a longer wire, splicing (or soldering if that's your thing) will be needed.

For a lightweight support system, try using some fiberglass flex rods for the radials. Powerwerx also a terminals that have heat shrink material. Picked some up at a ham fest last year or the year before, can't remember, but they work great.