Could anybody tell me where else I can find a SStran compatable antenna besides the type offered from an independent retailer on SStrans webpage?
I believe I had around $60 in material but I had to buy much more than I needed. I had to buy full sections of pipe and I didn't need it all. Beyond the 1/2" copper, I have enough to build another unit..
The hardest part is winding the coil. If your careful and keep tension on the wire, it's fairly easy. All you need to do is keep track of the amount of winds and when the tap points come up, just give the wire a "twist" with a pair of needle nose pliers at that point and keep winding to the next one and do the same. (horizontally, parallel with the form about a 1/4 turn) All you need to do is bend the wire at the tap point so you can solder to it. Raise it slightly away from the form, that's all. It doesn't have to be perfect. Mine wasn't..lol
I highly stress keeping tension on the wire! Not too much so to straighten your bends out, And don't let up! Just enough to keep the winds snug to the form. If it gets away from you, you will have a mess! Just take your time! I bought my wire from an alternator rebuilding shop and is was on a spool. I put the spool at the bottom step of my porch so when the wire was coming from it, the spool was pulled towards the step. I sat a couple of steps up from it and wound my coil. Worked great even on my first attempt! Just lay out the form as directed and it's easy! The rest of it is a piece of cake! NOTE: When cutting the "x" at the top of the 3/4" at the adjustment area, cut the slots with a hack saw lengthwise with the pipe and do it slowly..
A Trick: At the adjustment point..
You may find the difference (I.D.) of the 3/4" and the O.D. of the 1/2" has a lot of slop. The adjustment length is 11"..
Take a piece of the 1/2" pipe, 11" long, and cut a slot (straight) along the whole length from end to end. You can do this with a hacksaw but be careful not to deform the pipe in a vise in any way. Be sure to remove all of the burrs from the cut and make it as smooth as possible inside. Spread it slightly with a screwdriver and start it on the end of the top element. Once you have it started, use a piece of wood and bump it over the top element till it's flush at the bottom. If you have all of the burrs removed from everything, it should go on easily. This will fill the gap between the 2 sizes of pipe.. 🙂
The second worst part of building this (or any) antenna is buying the pipe. The cost of copper has really shot upwards in my area. I built mine last summer when copper was cheaper. I wonder how a 102" whip would work in place of the copper pipe?
Don
1620AM Copperhead Radio,
Lucama NC
I am using a 102" whip atop my coil. I have a tuning capacitor between the output of the transmitter and the coil. The capacitor is a 10 - 300 pf cap. It works but since I don't have a copper pipe, I can't make a range comparison. I'm sure others will have more input on this.
The copper pipe has a section to allow adjustment to fine tune the resonance peak when found on the coil. The whip is not adjustable in length to work with the coil..
I haven't tried this but I'd believe the built in matching circuit in the SSTran would load up a whip as long as there was some sort of counterpoise ground. (Think 8-10' of ground wire)
The wire antenna supplied with the kit is basically 2 whips. (in length) One for the radiator and one for the counterpoise ground. The matching circuit is designed to match this configuration with a lot of variables in conditions..
Ideally, having the SSTran mounted in a box with a whip mounted to the top and mounting the box on a 10' section of mast pipe with the ground connected to it would work but the pain would be getting to the box to tune it. Just the fact of your body being in the radiation pattern messes the tuning up. You'd be making a lot of trips up and down a ladder, believe me..
The ideal scenario would be an antenna that can be tuned from a distance, with just a field strength meter.. (Hang in there, guys.. I'm working on it)
My understanding from Phil who designed the SSTRAN and the outdoor antenna is that the thicker copper pipe versus a whip affects the bandwith and therefore the audio response or tone quality of the transmission. The thicker copper pipe gives a much broader bandwith and therefore better audio response. Phil has always given me excellent explanations about his designs and can be contacted at the E Mail address on the SSTRAN website [email protected] Jim B
Could anybody tell me where else I can find a SStran compatable antenna besides the type offered from an independent retailer on SStrans webpage?
The comments here are all very valuable. I can't recommend enough that you try to build your own. You'll learn a lot about how the system works, and you should have a lot of fun doing it.
I spent closer to $250 to build mine. I had to buy almost everything I needed to assemble it, including some new tools. The two sections of conduit used to build a tall mast were a sizeable percentage of this cost. I kept a spreadsheet of the cost that shows every last screw, if anyone is interested.
You can view my installation at http://robinvalley.org/about-photos.shtml
Regards,
Scott
I kept a spreadsheet of the cost that shows every last screw, if anyone is interested.
Love to see that - send it along or blog it 🙂
scwis at yahoo dot com