Dual Band Flower Pot Antenna

Everyone has to make their first antenna. So I built a simple flower pot antenna from PVC pipe and coax.

My First Antenna - A Dual Band (2m / 70cm) Flower Pot Antenna

I've bought a few whips for my HTs and thought it was about time I made an antenna of my own. Obviously, the place to start was a dual band UHF / VHF antenna.

Design

I picked the flower pot antenna based off the designs of VK2ZOI. This needed to be adapted to UK pipe sizes and I used this design altered by G6OHM to exploit 21.5mm waste water overflow pipe widely (and cheaply) available in the UK.

Shopping List

• 3m length of 21.5mm overflow pipe - source Kellaway Building Supplies
• RG58 coax cable - source Amazon.co.uk
• BNC Crimp tool and wire stripper for RG58 - source Amazon.co.uk
• Fishing line - source Amazon.co.uk
• Self-fusing rubber tape - source Amazon.co.uk

Method

Build

I followed this great video by M0MSN which takes you through the process. My only changes were that I used coax for the whole antenna including the bare element, and I cut another hole at the bottom of the choke to allow the cable to pass out of the PVC pipe. You will see what I mean on my pictures of the finished product.

Cable making

I found this video on how to use my crimp tool.

Finished Antenna

I made one tweak to the design as shown in the photo below.

I drilled a hole opposite and slightly below the entry hole for the bottom of the choke to allow the cable to pass across out and out again.

I mounted the antenna in a garden parasol stand (that is filled with water for now) and put up on my back garden wall, so it is elevated and away from the house. I could mount it higher, maybe when the weather is better.

SWR plots

I plugged the antenna into my NanoVNA-H4 and you can see the SWR. I suspect its a little long judging by the SWR plot.

2m Plot

70cm Plot