Creating A 144Mhz / 2M Hentenna

No its not a newfoundland slang of the word antenna....its a nice flat broad banded direct connect antenna thats easy to build and suitable for both fm and ssb use.

Stumbling on different antennas online a friend advised me of this one. I am as of this article living in a basement apt (above ground) and there is a 2m SSB net that happens every week. I was in need for a easy antenna I can hide along a wall and that I can easily convert from a verical polarization to a horizontal polarization.

The antenna is a wire thats 1 and 1/3 wavelengths in total length, shaped to form a rectangle. The long sides are 1/2 a wavelength and the short sides are 1/6 a wavelength.

The coax connection to the antenna is made around 1/10 of a wavelength back from one end.

It is very broadbanded and I got a 1:1.1 swr from 144-148Mhz. I was hoping with such a wide bandwidth it might easily port over to the 440 band but even after many attempts the swr would not go down to a suitable level. I found this antenna gave a 3db gain over my 1/4 wave.

Your polarization is determined on antenna orientation. You keep the antenna upright (not like the photo below which was only taken to show completed project). When the short ends of the antenna are vertical the antenna is using vertical polarization which is best suited for FM repeater work. When the short ends of the antenna are horizontal the antenna is using horizontal polarization and is best suited for SSB work.