Electric Fence Antenna - Improvised Field Comms
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ค. 2024
- In this episode, we're going to scavenge for materials and attempt to build a 40m HF dipole antenna with minimal tools. Once built, we'll attempt a targeted regional contact.
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0:00 Introduction
2:24 Scavenging Electric Fence Wire
3:27 Making Field Measurements
4:48 Scavenging More Wire
6:13 Wiring the Antenna
7:15 Setting up the Antenna
10:30 SWR Measurements
12:03 Getting on the Air
13:07 Winlink Session 1
14:45 Winlink Session 2
Close
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People if you like this video as much as I did, and like me see this series as very timely. Then please consider becoming a member and supporting this young man. I am a member. The more of us that can support him a little, the more awesome videos he can make. If your here watching these, you know this info is going to be needed any time now soon!
I am really glad you enjoyed the video, Dan. Thank you for the call-to-arms. I appreciate the support. I am trying to establish as many perks on Buy Me a Coffee for the members. The goal is to exit the full-time job, so that I can focus solely on making content, designing rugged radio gear, and developing simple-to-use communications software for offgrid and emergency scenarios. Cheers!
As usual, another inspirational video. Using what's available around you was very Macgyver-ish and takes away from the argument that you need special $100 antennas to accomplish this. Rocking that QRP ability, accomplishing more with less. Freaken love it!
Well said! Nothing about this communications setup would present well on paper. Low power, poor materials, poor ground conductivity, low deployment not entirely in freespace, etc. And, yet, we established a targeted regional contact. You never know until you try. 73's
Man i love the adapt and overcome spirit of this video, thanks for making it.
Glad you enjoyed it! I'll do a proper AAR this weekend. I took the weekend off and the TH-cam overlords are about to get unhappy if I go 8 days without a post. Take care!
17AWG aluminum fence wire is my go to for home made antennas. You can get a mile of it at the farm store for $20.00 It will last forever and its good and strong. Electric fence posts and insulators are also great to keep antenna builds cheap. 73
I looked up the pricing...this stuff is really inexpensive and seems to work very well based on this experiment. I would have preferred using just this 17AWG wire over the chicken coop mesh. Although, I learned that you can improvise usable antenna wire for processed wire mesh. Cheers!
It’s interesting that I found this video. I’m also primarily interested in focused contacts within my circle. I am about 100 miles out from the city, and most of them live there. I’ve tried many NVIS solutions. None of them really worked very well for that 100 mile range. So, I built an 80 meter dipole out of electric wire, and built it over my fence line. The entire dipole is about 5’ over the ground. It reliably hits the city, and does a nice job for longer distances too (out to about 600-800 miles). 73
That's awesome, Gaston! You definitely earned your McGuyver badge on this one!
My 80's inner child thanks you. MacGyver status achieved. ;-)
Nice job! Ingenuity and perseverance-a simple a 5 W transceiver, and you were able to send and receive emails without the Internet!
Yes! Thank you! This experiment really shocked me.
I knew you could do this, the dipole cobra head will work! Great work G!
You have way too much faith in me, but thank you. I was about 20% confident that I could pull this off. That chicken coup mesh really surprised me. It was a great feeling hearing that remote Winlink station respond. Thanks for the support.
Love it! Field fence can be found all over the country. From vacant land to old prairies.
Love the attempt and it came with success.
Hey bud! You're 100% correct on the availability of field materials. Get yourself some Cobra heads and you're golden.
Another great video Gaston!!! As you continue with this it would be great to keep notes of tools used etc... to make a video of recommended tools and supplies to keep on you for emcomm improvisation
Great idea! I have listed most of them in the descriptions. For example, I have been carrying that Leatherman MUT multi-tool for years, but have never used the pliers until this video. It's typically used to remove Colla (nasty little cactus balls) from my ankles and gear when running/hiking. The Cobra head and NanoVNA are also must-have tools in my opinion.
Looks like lots of fun!
This is one of the most badass radio channels and videos ever.
This is high praise. I am glad you liked it. I'm on a mission to figure out emcomm for myself...the GoPro just follows me along. Take it easy!
@@TheTechPrepper I love the content, and look forward to your tools release. I’m over in Utah if you need any long distance testing.
@@ridiculous9730 Shoot me an email and we can line something up in the future. My email is on the About page on my TH-cam channel. I'm also on QRZ. 73 de KT7RUN
This is why I have a bunch of wire antennas and cheap ass fishing poles. There is an antenna in every vehicle and bag. 24awg silicone wire takes up almost no space, and a 12 dollar 7m fishing pole will support it depending on the feed line. Wind it on an instant coffee lid, which with a hole poked in it can be a mounting point on the pole.
Some of the Ham Clubs in the N Houston area have called for a Sorta-POTA. Some up some Sat or Sun in a Houston or Harris County park, and make some Q's off battery/solar/car. Have had some fun .
Actually came 20 miles on Houston METRO bus with a phone/Winlink Yeasu FTM 6000 setup in a roller. Phone and digi setup in under 15 minutes.
Hint:. MFJ and like half wave 2m, mag mount, and pizza pan does wonders.
Another great video. Love the heel to toe counting in FF. Keeping it real!
I can't take the credit. A Buy Me a Coffee member sent me that tip. As it turns out a men's size 10 is almost exactly 12". Glad you enjoyed it.
What can I say that I haven't said before? Typical excellent and totally applicable! Once again, Thank you for sharing with us!
You're very welcome! I appreciate you jumping into the comments. I appreciate all the years of support.
This is awesome, as always. No matter what the outcome, something useful is always learned!
Absolutely. I learned a lot with this exercise. I am debating whether I should film a part II for an AAR?
Absolutely phenomenal video! It's the simple, homebrew, build it with what you got antennas that work well. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to the next improvised antenna project! 73
Thanks, Sean! K.I.S.S and emcomm are like peas and carrots. ;-)
Outstanding stuff mate should be inspirational for preppers. Many thanks
Glad you enjoyed it. I hope the preppers are seeing what's possible with radio and a little ingenuity.
Super cool - love the excitement- gotta try the digital modes myself
I had a blast. It's great to hear that the excitement made it through to the viewers. Everything was shot in one take, so thanks for dealing with me fumbling for my words at various parts in the video. Cheers!
I appreciate the dirty improvisation. You don't know what will work until you try it. Now, you have some first-hand experience with an improvised antenna using environmental resources.
Glad to hear it. The hunt for materials and the build payed off. Lots of lessons learned on what is possible with very little. More to come.
Awesome video!!!! I'm new here and have been enjoying all of your videos. Thank You.
Welcome to the channel! I highly recommend the "Manpack" series and the "No Random Contacts" series if you dig this kind of contact. I have playlists for each. Cheers.
Dude! You did it! Doesn’t get anymore field expedient that this. This is another video you’ve done in field expedient antennas and ops. Love it ! Will test this here in Canada as well.
73 de VE6DPC
Good luck with your testing. Look at your antenna analyzer and make sure you get as close to 50 ohms if you don't have a tuner. Cheers for the US! I enjoy it when the VE's jump in.
Another great timely video!
Thanks, Dan! I appreciate the on-going support.
Nice work brother! Great experiment!
Thank you! Cheers!
The Tech Prepper rocks it again!!!! Slap some junk together, cross your fingers.......and VOILA! You did it. Not surprised due to the fact that the SWR was good on the antenna. Great video amigo! Keep them coming!!! 73's KG7GTF
5 watts and some junk wire for the win!
@@TheTechPrepper Instead of Two Turntables and a Microphone”… We’ll start calling you “Slim Jankie”…. Two Jankie Wires and a Transmitter”!! 😂. I crack myself up!!
@@dimitdamnit Title accepted. You're a funny man.
Pretty cool, great real world test. With the painter pole, you also have the option of raising the center point, making it more of an inverted V, and getting more distance from it.
Yep, but I had my permanent CHA LEFS 8010 EFHW right above it at 16', so I kept it at 8'. Hey, it worked!
Simple still works. RF hasn't changed. We just complicated our understanding of what it takes to get on the air.
100% agree. Physics has not changed. KISS for the win.
THAT is exactly what I believe is possible if shtf.
Soooo appreciate your doing this type emcom demo.
Thank You
You are very welcome. This channel is geared around my personal emcomm training, so I am happy that others finding my wacky experiments useful.
Very cool! I thought the wire mesh would work...similar to using the wire mesh shielding from a piece of coax.
Enjoying the channel. Lot's of good info here, and I like the way you do stuff out in the field.
Ese ejercicio lo hice en 1989 con el cerco del ganado durante un ejercicio de comunicaciones de mi unidad... contacto a 1800 kms con un equipo tadiran.. hoy algunos colegas de mi pais estan replicandolo...
EXCELENTE prueba de campo !!! Congratulations from Argentina
Thanks for sharing your successful exercise from 1989. Cheers from the US.
Hello Gaston. Really, dipole antennas are the all-terrain of communications... with a few meters of wire we're always fine. 😁👍👍👍
Obrigado. 😉
Yes, they are. Dipoles are my go-to. Simple and effective. Cheers!
Great stuff Gaston, well done.
Thanks, Malen. Out of curiosity, have you use twisted pair wire as a replacement for feedline?
@@TheTechPrepper I have with WD1TT Feild phone wire with limited success. Turns out a few years later I realized tuning antennas at my QTH ends with the same results, out of tune once I travel.
@@malenve6vid That's been my experience, too. Thanks for the reply.
Good Job
Thank you! I like your handle. If you're a military comms guy, I'd be interested in any experience you may have using twisted pair wire as a replacement for a coax feed line. Take care.
While I was in SF, they sent so phycologists to study us and they conducted interviews for about two months, and they ended with giving each specialty a survey which featured situations radio guys would encounter. They had things people tried to make communications and also suggesting from the other team members and asked what you thought of these. I seen right through it all as figured out, the best successful radio dudes would be the ones who tried everything and had alternatives. The other part was if someone else had an idea, did you try it or quickly dismiss it as not going to work. This knack they were looking for and its part of all field improvised field comms. The survey would find out who did and who did not.
Thanks for sharing this background information. I plan to construct similar interview tests when I hire my first employee for TTP. I am a fan of grit and determination.
I likeyour concise notes of location, gear and tuning settings for easy setup in that location next time.
I once loaded up the top wire of a really long grapevine at a vineyard is was manning for a bike race.
Manual tuner and counterpoise got me on 3.925 MHz. 73
It's nice having this info in a quickly digestible format. Which tuner did you use? Did use a similar method... a Cobra head and alligator clip?
Beauty Dutyful Solutions by "The Tech Prepper" excellent Job, Gaston. 💯🔔🔔🔔👍🙋♂
Thanks! As always, I love it when you drop by. I hope all is well in DE.
@@TheTechPrepper Good morning Gaston. Yes I am doing well - my Country doesn't but at least I do. I enjoy every Day waking up feeling my foxtrott uniforned Bones and jumping off my Matress with good Motivation. HAM Radio keeps me alive and leaves no time left for feeling depressed or hanging myself down.
Slowly getting ready for my Night out up in the Northeastern Hills. Happy Humpday is sent into the Grand Canyon State.
73 de YFUG from southwest Germany 💯👍🙋♂
That's awesome Gaston (Elmer Fud MacGuyver)! :)
The audio sounded great and you got comms, nice.
You live in Bouvet wilderness right there!😁
Thanks, Don. I had no idea how this video and/or experiment was going to turn out.
Pretty neat! Just shows.. even chicken wire mesh can do the trick if in a pinch.
Yep. I really had no idea that the chicken coop wire would work. That sucker was a pain to cut and flatten out, but it worked.
Awesome applesauce Gaston!
Yes it was!
Hey bubba the feed store will have the hot wire supplies.
I am always amazed at what will work for an antenna. Transmitting antennas are a little picky, but receive antennas are wide open.
I've mentioned this before, but everytime I read your name it makes me chuckle. When you first started commenting, I remember you recanting a story on how some folks in your neck of the woods pronounced it. This build surprised me. I actually thought I was going to be closer to 20% success on this one.
@@TheTechPrepper I tried to find a video on fractal antennas starting with WWII German resistance. At least one resistance movement antenna was the lead frame of a stained glass window in a church.
Impure water is often conductive. That implies creek water, plants, cadavers, and excrement from either end are all potential antennas.
Patch antenna design requires using the proper surface area formula and not length formula for designing resonant antennas. A pile of elephant dung might have enough surface area to resonate on 40m. I've enjoyed videos of QRP operators hooking up radios to available structures and making contacts. Structures like baseball backstops, bleachers, raingutters, playground sets, metal benches, etc. When I carried an HT regularly I would often touch the antenna to whatever was around me to see if it acted like a receiving antenna. If it does then it has a good chance of becoming a transmitting antenna, if you can match the load to your transmitter.
@@vironpayne3405 Thanks for the details. This advice would take this series to a whole new level. I'll steer clear of the dung for now. Happy hump day.
Great video. You could have gotten a head start on the length of your cable by counting the number of blocks in the wall it was attached to. Standard CMUs are 16" long. That wall kind of looks like it has 24" block. But you could do your estimate with your foot and then just count the blocks. Standard red bricks are 8" long. Parking spaces are usually 9' x 18'. Ceiling tile is usually is 24" x 48". Blah blah who cares just another Commenter with bright ideas!
I could get behind your ecomm tools idea and would like to see more on this.
Thanks. That project has stalled due to time constraints, but I am trying to get momentum on that project soom.
@The Tech Prepper I can understand completely. I saw the membership website u have for it and the different levels. I would like to contribute do u have a Kickstarter for it by chance? I don't like memberships lol but I would like to contribute to it I think you have something there and even if it doesn't take off I would love something like that to complement my setup and would love to be a part of it any way I can.
@@joshuat8996 I don't have a kickstarter page, but there's also a one-time support option on Buy Me a Coffee. If you're interested, there's a link in the video description.
@The Tech Prepper
Ok thanks I think I will go for your gold membership actually I didn't read the benefits. I would like to communicate with you and see your progress. You will see it by next Friday thanks
@@joshuat8996 Wow! Thank you, Josh. There is one slot left for the Gold Membership. I've had fun doing 1-on-1's for the last two months with the other members. There are a couple of other perks that I have not listed, such direct access to all my new products when they're available. You guys get to cut inline for things like my TTP Manpacks. I look forward to connecting. Cheers!
Can you also make a field expedient feed line? I'd be curious just how much of the entire kit can be made this way.
Very nice, took some work.
Now I'm wondering if it's possible to make 49:1 out of an alternator🤔
Possibly! It's too bad that I don't have any junk cars on the property.
I used electric fence wire before as well. I have a spool of the stuff in the garage. It's a great, cheap wire that you can throw away without worrying about it. But, it will work as an antenna.
With a 9:1 unun, you can make an EFRW or a random loop. Now I'm wondering what would happen if I just staked a 60ft loop on the ground out in the playa somewhere...
It's interesting that you mentioned a 9:1 UnUn. That's in the plan for this series. I plan to cannibalize and modify my PackTenna random wire antenna for the next field video.
I have a 40 m loop in the back yard held up with temporary electric fence posts. Feed to a LDG 9:1 unun. Seems to cut down on noise
I've experienced the lower noise with the 9:1 UnUn's as well. Thanks for sharing.
Something I have been wondering, would there be any practical benefit of using Morse code or Tap code with a HT's DTMF tone? Stated again, is there a difference in intelligibility between FM voice and using a FM DTMF "keyer"?
Hi :)
I love this video, keep up the good work.
Best regards and 73 from 20 SC 1189 / 20 RSN 309 Norway.
Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers from the US.
Well done, talk about field expedient communications craft! Great video, and don't be too hard on yourself Elmer Fudd, lol!
73, de vo1ja, Harry.
Thanks for the kind words. I tried to take you and the viewers with me on the actual journey of this exercise with that comes the Elmer Fudd stumbles. Have a good one.
Anything will work. Just depends on what you want it to do compared to what it is capable of!!!!
Wow, that was awesome! I just thought of a quick question: If you had not flattened the wire spurs that stuck out to the sides of the chicken wire would it have made any difference? Help, interfere, etc?
Glad you liked it. This is a great question, but way about my pay grade. Does anyone else know? I flattened it more for the safety perspective while handling the wire for the deployment.
All you need to make this video better is someone delivering effective fire on your position. Savage hamming, carry on.
That's a good point. I am not planning on taking fire anytime soon, but I'll look into making a video that incorporates some operational security in the future. May be a field expedient antenna built at night in a remote location? Other ideas, short of getting shot at?
@@TheTechPrepper if the environment becomes non-permissive, you’re not going to want to transmit from your operating base. Maybe insert into a transmitting location at night and make a known contact and extract covertly? I’ve been playing around with field portable yagi antennas and making directional contacts on low wattage (on 2m, not so feasible on HF). NVIS? Keep up the great content.
@@AndrewWisler Excellent suggestions. I have very good luck with my Yagi and my VX-6R running at 300 mW. I'll incorporate a movement and send a payload requesting an evac in a future video. I've read that NVIS is hard to direction find as the signal appears to come from everywhere in an omnidirectional pattern. Maybe an HF fox hunt would be a good way to test that assertion.
@@TheTechPrepper The foxhunt is a good idea. I've also wondered about how hard it is to DF an NVIS signal.
10:30 it will work
Get a cheap mile spool of WD1T surplus field phone wire. Works great for antennas and very rugged.
That's in the plan. I plan to swap up of the coax for WD1T as a poor man's feedline. The US military field manuals are a bit light on the details. Do you have any experience with this?
@@TheTechPrepper not as feedline but yes for antennas. If for aerials and you don't unzip it, then strip and solder all the conductors. The stuff is so cheap....why not?
@@Philip-KA4KOE Thanks for responding. I'll keep digging on the use case for feedline. I figured it would be fine for the antenna itself.
@@TheTechPrepper Try it just for funzies for balanced line.
The Universal theory of - I should "something".... but Eff it!. gold
Brought to you by "Bubba Engineering".
This video was very much a "let's do this on the fly" kind of video. ;-)
I suggest trying a twisted pair wire and a TV coaxial cable
Have you been looking in my "video ideas" notebook. That is in the backlog for this series.
Mesh could be a counter poise
I am surprised how low your SWR was without a balun. Did you have a balun? I did not see one.
There was no balun.
A good experiment would be making an antenna out of barbed wire. Its everywhere around where I live.
That's in the plan for the next video. I am going to avoid a dipole build with the barbed wire, but I plan to look into either improvising a random wire, long wire or loop using a 9:1 UnUn and plenty off barbed wire. We have miles of it here, too. Take it easy.
👏👏👏
17ga wire like thet is about 30-40.00 for a 1/4 mile and the best for real long dipoles/loops.
It's hard to beat electric fence wire for the price. I'll be looking at some long wire antennas in the future.
@@TheTechPrepper for the short piece you have there you might watch KB9RLWs video on Spiral loops. You would be able to make 40 meters well but you need to make a variable cap. That is a series in iteself.
@@W4TRI Thanks for the suggestion. It's my watch list.
Could you pull off voice comms on this particular setup?
Yes. Just did this yesterday with another ham in my group. Made the contact from Arizona to Nevada (200 miles).
No Balun on this coax splitter?
I carry one in my pack but did not use it here since we were improvising an antenna.
@@TheTechPrepper Which balun do you have? Did you buy it or make it?
Make a vertical. Use mesh as ground plane.
A vertical would have prevented me from making that 60 mile contact due to the lower take off angle with a vertical. I was looking for an NVIS antenna deployment to make this local/regional contact. My last three videos were verticals. However, the mesh as a ground plane is great idea. Cheers!
👍💯
I have some stainless steel tie wire i may have to try...
Give it a go!
I definitely will, I'll try and update when I have finished with that experiment
Where can we find that cobra head
It's in the description!
@@TheTechPrepper of course it is! Sorry bro.
@@ridiculous9730 No worries. I appreciate the support. You'll be putting about 3 cents into my bank account if you pick one up. ;-)
ive seen people use electric fence wire, cat cable for ethernet, phone line, etc. Whatever works :)
Exactly right. Most things will "antenna". It's a blast when you cobble something together and it works!
Put some wire over a cactus or use 2 to hold up a dipole 😋
A few have mentioned that...
I guess the electric fence is for critters. Coyotes, snakes, cats? Does it work?
Primarily for the coyotes. We had a problem with the pack rats, so of the neighbors picked up "working cats" to clear the property. The pack rats are gone, but now the coyotes are eating the cats.
Intriguing, but I have absolutely no idea what I just watched. 🤷🏼♂️
Haha.. Us radio guys will try to make an antenna from scrap we have lying around. If you can get a long enough wire, or mangle some together, you can make contacts very far away. The calculations for the length of wire are pretty simple too. We name the radio bands suitably... 2M Band, 4M Band, 20M Band, 40M Band, 80M Band etc. The length of wire needed is exactly half of the Band that you wish to transmit or receive on. So 20M wire for the 40M Band.
Glad you liked it. I basically built an antenna out of scavenged materials with the purpose of making a target contact to a remote radio station about 60 miles from my station. I used something called "digital data modes" to send an email over radio (using the Winlink radio email system).
@@TheTechPrepper The simple part I got (random wires for an antenna), but the jargon and the other concepts are beyond me, though I fully understand the usefulness.
I'll read up, and I have subscribed so maybe eventually your videos will make sense to me. 🤣
@@CredibleHulk10 Give it time. If nothing else, you should get a sense for what's possible with radio.
Ok...if you have to use your shoe to measure a "foot", then precision isn't thaaaaat important....just sayin'.
Did the antenna work?
BIG learn here. Just joined grabmeacoffee thanks!
Welcome aboard! Thanks for the support. I hope you enjoy the 12-part EMP mini series that I sent the members last night.