Re: [IRCA] Antenna Phaser/Combiner article

["Craig Healy" <bubba@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Thank you very much.  The article was quite clear and I could
> follow it all to make one of these for myself....

There just isn't much to it.  The first one I made was by using a few clip
leads.  No box, no connectors.  It nulled just as well as the better looking
ones.  The one I use in the radio room I made probably 25 years ago as a
variable attenuator.  And, the one in the truck was originally a homebrew
phaser with two level controls and a phase pot.  Stripped out the extra
stuff and left the two pots and a 0/180° switch.  All I really ever use is
the pot on the whip input.  The other is left wide open and the 0/180°
switch is left at 0.

> The only omission that I could see was a description of the balun
> at the vertical.  could you give us a description of that... core
> material/size, etc and turns count??

This particular one is a 450 to 50 ohm.  Thirty turns on the 450 turn side,
ten on the 50 ohm side.  The core is an Amidon made of (I think) 75 or 77
material.  It's a 7/8" or 1" diameter.  It really isn't at all crucial.  In
the truck I have a 68" whip on the roof rack connected directly to the coax.
No balun at all.  Ground is the truck body.  Since a good ground is hard to
find in the average room of the house, I have the balanced vertical there.
If you have any sort of vertical that provides a halfway decent signal,
it'll work.  Normally I don't have to turn the pot up more than a quarter
turn.  As long as the whip supplies enough RF, it's OK.

Gotta be the simplest antenna thing ever.  The vertical was put together
with just wire, some PVC pipe and some coax.  The ferrite rod was bought
from Stormwise and six turns wrapped around it and then to a coax connector.
Short run of coax to a "Tee".  Then the one-pot combiner and some coax to
the receiver.  All in all I think I put this stuff together in a half hour.
None of the dimensions are at all critical.

It will also work just fine with an existing loop, be it a Quantum or some
home-made variant.  Doesn't have to be a ferrite rod.  As long as it has the
classic figure-8 pattern and it can be rotated, it's good.

I hope other folks build this.  It will be interesting to see the results.
I hope it's as good as the two setups I made.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI


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