August 8, 2025 • 12 mins
Discover the world of DIY antennas crafted by Ham Radio operators! In this video, we explore innovative antenna designs, expert tips, and step-by-step guides to building high-performance antennas for amateur radio. Perfect for hobbyists and enthusiasts looking to boost their signal and connect with the global Ham Radio community. Subscribe for more radio tech insights!
Today's video is sponsored by M&P Coax - save 10% off of all products with code HR2CABLES at this link - https://hr2.li/cables
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Today's video is sponsored by M&P Coax - save 10% off of all products with code HR2CABLES at this link - https://hr2.li/cables
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- https://zbm2industries.com?sca_ref=9160383.KLowGRY9LO
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- https://vfcomms.com/x/jason/
- https://www.spooltenna.com/?sca_ref=8414166.StZ7sWaR9v98
- https://reelefhw.com/product-category/antennas/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six Ham made antennas, antennas that are made by Ham's
individual Hams, not corporations. We're gonna talk about those today.
I like Ham made products, and there's a lot of
really good antennas out there that are commercial grade, commercially available,
such as Alpha Antenna, Buddy Pole, and DX Commander. We're
(00:23):
not talking about those today. We're talking about Ham made products,
smaller companies, individual people, single one man show projects from
several different people. I'm gonna pick the top six of
the newest antennas that I've seen. Some are HF, some
are HT antennas, and we're going to talk about them
right now. The first one is from ZBM two Industries
(00:45):
dot com. This is a foul Weather Whip antenna V two.
This is a very well made antenna. It comes in
different colors. It comes in B and C. He does
sell adapters for him. You can see the different colors
right there. I had this antenna on my radio. I
still have it on my radio right here. Actually at
(01:06):
Ham Venchon in May of this year, and some people
asked what intenna is that? And the great thing about
this antenna is it doesn't have it doesn't really get
a memory, even after having it rolled up like that.
He calls it a foul weather antenna because it's waterproof.
It's not going to get anything in the connectors. It's
got these waterproof connections right here. This is a BNC
(01:28):
style connector right there. I've just got the adapter on
the radio, and I've been very happy with this intenna.
It is kind of tall, so it has it kind
of sometimes it takes a little bit to get it
all put together on your belt and whatnot. But I've
been running this antenna for about three maybe four months now,
been very very happy with it. He's got two or
(01:49):
three other versions on here on his website also, and
you can save a discount with the coupon code of
KC five HWB. I'll put a link to this and
everything else we talk about today in the description. Blow
number two is a close second, or perhaps a close first.
This is the signal stick. Now. I've talked about these
a lot. This is a signal stick antenna right here.
These are super elastic signal sticks. They are also HT antennas,
(02:13):
and you can see them in different colors on the website. Also,
I've got a bunch here. This is the one that
I took off of my jesu FTX one that I
did the video about different sizes, different colors, like that.
These guys are at Hamvention, They're at ham Kash while
they were at ham Kashen for the first time this year.
(02:34):
These tend to get a little bit of a memory
in the antenna if you kind of roll them up
like that, still not a super huge thing. If you
just kind of like unroll them and let them sit
out by themselves, they'll pretty much get back to the
straight angle. Not it won't take too long at all.
I know several guys that run these on a magmat
(02:55):
on top of their vehicle and use them for a
mobile antenna. These will handle about seven five ish watts
of power, so you can turn your fifty watt vhf
UHF mobile radio up all the way and you can
get really good results with this. Robert from the Digital
Rancher channel he has used one of these on top
of his truck to actually make contacts with the satellite
(03:15):
from his Icon twenty seven thirty inside of his vehicle,
so you can't really complain with that. Over here on
the website, he has a SMA female and a B
and c different style adapters. There a dual ban seventy centimeter,
the four to forty mono band, and the two to
twenty mono band. I've been after Richard for a while
to make a triband version. Hopefully one of these days
(03:36):
he'll he'll do that, and I know when I talk
to him. This may May of twenty twenty five at
him daytonhamvention, he was looking at making a nine hundred
megahertz antenna for mesh Tastic. I don't see that on
the website yet, but I would not be surprised to
find that very soon, So check out the link in
the description blow for signal stick as well. Number three
(03:57):
is another HT extension inten This is the Farajay antenna
from vf coms dot com. Now I have a couple
of these. I actually have about four of these, and
he actually did these up for me because he's real nice.
Put my call sign on him and whatnot. This is
the J and the jpole right here. I believe the
one I'm holding in my hand right now is the
(04:19):
four to forty mono band. He does not make a
multiband intenna, at least not at the time of this recording.
I've got four of these antennas. I've got a six meter,
a two meter, a four forty, and a GMRS which
is tuned around the four to sixty two megahertz band.
But they all have these B and C connectors on
them right here, and then they come with these loops
(04:41):
to hang them from. And you can hang this on,
you know, anywhere. You can hang it on a push
up pole like the PoTA twenty or PoTA thirty three
mass from Gigaparts. You can hang this from a hook
and set it up at the campsite and it'll be
a It's obviously very weather proof, so it'll be a
great addition to your campsite, makes your e H range
(05:01):
reach out a little bit farther, and obviously it packs
down very small. The great thing about this antenna over
other external antennas that you might put on an HT
and we're going to talk about one of those here
in just a minute, is that it folds up so
nicely because it's made of cloth, so really great quality antenna,
really fun to kind of tinker with and see how
(05:26):
how well it works. I did hook one of the
I hooked the four to forty version of this actually
this one right here. I hooked this one to my
FTX one the last time I was in Galveston, and
I hung it from my deck in Galveston, so it
was up probably like ten feet nine or ten feet
in the air something like that, and I was working
in the local repeater from the FTX one in Galveston
with no problem. Really like that antenna just because it's
(05:46):
very small in compact. Another one that I've used in
Galveston is the spool a tenna. This one's pretty new.
This one's one of the newest ones we're going to
talk about on today's video. This is a unique design.
It comes on a spool. You just kind of put
a screw dry or a small post through the antenna
and you deploy it and it works for HEF bands.
(06:08):
This is an HEF antenna and it'll work for forty
through ten meters. This is basically an infed halfwave intenna
that you can roll out to a certain leg. You
just roll the whole thing out. Actually you roll the
whole thing out, and it's a forty meter infed halfwave,
which means this resonent on ten, fifteen, twenty and forty meters.
Once you roll the antenna out here. You connect it
(06:29):
to the B and C here and then you hang this.
You put this. I put my feed point on the ground.
You can hang the feed point up from a mast
if you want to. I hung the other end of
the antenna up from this map from a mast. In
my video, there's a banana plug that connects right here
as well. This is where you connect your coax and
then this this wire that unwraps connects right here via
banana plug, and you can just put a screwdriver through
(06:52):
the center hole right here and wind it out and
wind it back in fairly easily, kind of like that.
So you can wind it out, wind it in like
that kind of the way it's designed. This piece right
here acts as your toroid and infed halfwave matching unit.
The unon and then the wire, like I said, just
connects right here. Got some really good results from this
(07:13):
antenna when I was in Galveston last time, did a
whole video about the prototype. This is the actual working version,
which is up on their website and for sale right now.
Very small, compact, easy to carry around, and if you
want a forty to ten meters hf intenna, this one.
This one's just great because it's it fits so well
into a pack and you can carry it around pretty
(07:34):
much everywhere you go. It will handle a full hundred
watts on sideband too, so that's always a good thing. Now,
while I'm out on Poda, I always feed my antenna
with Mesi and Plenty Coax. Mezi and Plenty Coax is
the sponsor of today's video. You can save a ten
percent discount on all of their products at the link
in the description below, which will take you to the
Gigabart's website. Use the coupon code of HR two Cables.
(07:56):
HR two Cables get you ten percent off of their
Coax connectors, adapters, their tools for putting adapters on and
taking adapters off of their coacts, their Poda cable, their
colored Ultraflex and Hyperflex cable. All of their products. HR
two Cables get you ten percent off. Check the link
in the description blow and thank them for sponsoring this video.
Another one that's similar but a little bit been out
(08:18):
a little bit longer than this school atenda is this
real podaable antenna? Now it looks like on this website
I just found this earlier. Today they've got a new
version right here. This one right here is a B
and C which is a special order, and then this
one is a new version, and I'm not sure what's
new about that one. This one right here on the
left looks like it's fed with an SO two thirty
(08:40):
nine or PL two fifty nine coacts and that's the
and the one I have is fed. It has an
SO two. The antenna has an SO two thirty nine
on it, so you can connect regular PL two fifty
nine COACX to it. I haven't seen this B and
C one yet, so I'm wondering what's new about this version.
I'm have to email the guys and talk to them
about that. But I had this intenna with me at
park was that is one of the national parks. I
(09:02):
just went to mas Verda National Park. We stayed overnight
in a cabin in the park, and I strung this
antenna out from the balcony of our deck of our cabin,
which was not up very high. I strung it out
into the field and I was making FT eight contacts.
Turn the radio down to fifty watts. This will handle
about forty fifty watts on FT eight. Turn the radio
down to about fifty watts, made fifty fifty two contacts
(09:24):
in about maybe a little bit over an hour or
something like that, maybe about an hour and a half,
maybe about ninety minutes something like that. It might have
been a couple hours. I didn't really look the clock
to see exactly how long it was, but worked great.
Love this antenna. You roll it out all the way,
you get ten meter ft eight, You crank it in
about six or seven times, and you get a full
ten ten fifteen twenty and forty meters infed halfwave antenna.
(09:45):
Great antenna. I made a video about this antenna on
the website when it was brand new. It's up here.
I'll link it right here and you can go check
that out. The last one we're going to talk about
today is the Edfong J pole. Now. I sell the
Edfong J poles on my website, Great Fine Amateur Radio
dot com. It comes in several different variations. The dual
band roll up looks like it's sold out right now.
(10:05):
The dual band roll up is a fantastic one to
put on an HT and set up at a campsite
as well. I had my dual band roll up Edfong
jpole at Hamcashon in Orlando of twenty twenty five, and
I had it connected to my Kinwood D seventy four
and it was up about I don'm twelve or fifteen
feet something like that. So we were bluetooth connecting to
(10:26):
my radio and using the TNC and the Kinwood to
connect to a local wind Link packet. Note. We were
sending real time win Link emails over URF through the
HT Bluetooth to the HT using a WODE wind Link
over Android to connect to the radio and then transmit
RF to a local win Link packet node, and that
(10:47):
worked very well. The dual band in PVC is a
good dual band. You just put it in PVC and
put it up on your house. It doesn't really look
like an antenna, just looks kind of like part of
your plumbing or something. They've got a two twenty monoband version.
They've got a GMRS mono band version, and then they've
got the dual band PVC and the dual band roll up,
(11:07):
both in commercial versions. So there's six variations of this antenna.
He actually does make a tryband one. Also, it's about
seven feet tall and kind of hard to ship, so
I don't carry that one. But again Edfong, you can
find two or three or four dealers around the USA,
and you can contact Ed Fond directly and see what
he might ship to you by himself, because he does
(11:27):
sell direct to the public as well. The price is
reflected on my website or the price is set by Edfong,
so you should be paying the same prices everywhere. But
these have been I've sold over a thousand of these
antennas over the last three to four years, all different variations,
and they're great antennas for base stations, for packable antennas,
packable roll up j pols, for gmrs, for all of
(11:48):
the bands, and everything like that. So those are my
top six picks for Ham made products. All of the
products I mentioned today are individually owned. They're just a
singer making an antenna or a single couple. Sometimes I
think the spoolten is actually made by a couple, single
couple making an antenna and selling it to the Ham
(12:08):
radio public for a little bit of profit, but also
to give it back to the Ham radio public. So
which one do you like? Have you used any of these,
what do you think about them? And if you have
any more Ham made antennas that you would like to
see me test out, or you think I should know about.
Put a comment in the video below. Thanks for watching.
Six Ham made antennas, antennas that are made by Ham's
individual Hams, not corporations. We're gonna talk about those today.
I like Ham made products, and there's a lot of
really good antennas out there that are commercial grade, commercially available,
such as Alpha Antenna, Buddy Pole, and DX Commander. We're
(00:23):
not talking about those today. We're talking about Ham made products,
smaller companies, individual people, single one man show projects from
several different people. I'm gonna pick the top six of
the newest antennas that I've seen. Some are HF, some
are HT antennas, and we're going to talk about them
right now. The first one is from ZBM two Industries
(00:45):
dot com. This is a foul Weather Whip antenna V two.
This is a very well made antenna. It comes in
different colors. It comes in B and C. He does
sell adapters for him. You can see the different colors
right there. I had this antenna on my radio. I
still have it on my radio right here. Actually at
(01:06):
Ham Venchon in May of this year, and some people
asked what intenna is that? And the great thing about
this antenna is it doesn't have it doesn't really get
a memory, even after having it rolled up like that.
He calls it a foul weather antenna because it's waterproof.
It's not going to get anything in the connectors. It's
got these waterproof connections right here. This is a BNC
(01:28):
style connector right there. I've just got the adapter on
the radio, and I've been very happy with this intenna.
It is kind of tall, so it has it kind
of sometimes it takes a little bit to get it
all put together on your belt and whatnot. But I've
been running this antenna for about three maybe four months now,
been very very happy with it. He's got two or
(01:49):
three other versions on here on his website also, and
you can save a discount with the coupon code of
KC five HWB. I'll put a link to this and
everything else we talk about today in the description. Blow
number two is a close second, or perhaps a close first.
This is the signal stick. Now. I've talked about these
a lot. This is a signal stick antenna right here.
These are super elastic signal sticks. They are also HT antennas,
(02:13):
and you can see them in different colors on the website. Also,
I've got a bunch here. This is the one that
I took off of my jesu FTX one that I
did the video about different sizes, different colors, like that.
These guys are at Hamvention, They're at ham Kash while
they were at ham Kashen for the first time this year.
(02:34):
These tend to get a little bit of a memory
in the antenna if you kind of roll them up
like that, still not a super huge thing. If you
just kind of like unroll them and let them sit
out by themselves, they'll pretty much get back to the
straight angle. Not it won't take too long at all.
I know several guys that run these on a magmat
(02:55):
on top of their vehicle and use them for a
mobile antenna. These will handle about seven five ish watts
of power, so you can turn your fifty watt vhf
UHF mobile radio up all the way and you can
get really good results with this. Robert from the Digital
Rancher channel he has used one of these on top
of his truck to actually make contacts with the satellite
(03:15):
from his Icon twenty seven thirty inside of his vehicle,
so you can't really complain with that. Over here on
the website, he has a SMA female and a B
and c different style adapters. There a dual ban seventy centimeter,
the four to forty mono band, and the two to
twenty mono band. I've been after Richard for a while
to make a triband version. Hopefully one of these days
(03:36):
he'll he'll do that, and I know when I talk
to him. This may May of twenty twenty five at
him daytonhamvention, he was looking at making a nine hundred
megahertz antenna for mesh Tastic. I don't see that on
the website yet, but I would not be surprised to
find that very soon, So check out the link in
the description blow for signal stick as well. Number three
(03:57):
is another HT extension inten This is the Farajay antenna
from vf coms dot com. Now I have a couple
of these. I actually have about four of these, and
he actually did these up for me because he's real nice.
Put my call sign on him and whatnot. This is
the J and the jpole right here. I believe the
one I'm holding in my hand right now is the
(04:19):
four to forty mono band. He does not make a
multiband intenna, at least not at the time of this recording.
I've got four of these antennas. I've got a six meter,
a two meter, a four forty, and a GMRS which
is tuned around the four to sixty two megahertz band.
But they all have these B and C connectors on
them right here, and then they come with these loops
(04:41):
to hang them from. And you can hang this on,
you know, anywhere. You can hang it on a push
up pole like the PoTA twenty or PoTA thirty three
mass from Gigaparts. You can hang this from a hook
and set it up at the campsite and it'll be
a It's obviously very weather proof, so it'll be a
great addition to your campsite, makes your e H range
(05:01):
reach out a little bit farther, and obviously it packs
down very small. The great thing about this antenna over
other external antennas that you might put on an HT
and we're going to talk about one of those here
in just a minute, is that it folds up so
nicely because it's made of cloth, so really great quality antenna,
really fun to kind of tinker with and see how
(05:26):
how well it works. I did hook one of the
I hooked the four to forty version of this actually
this one right here. I hooked this one to my
FTX one the last time I was in Galveston, and
I hung it from my deck in Galveston, so it
was up probably like ten feet nine or ten feet
in the air something like that, and I was working
in the local repeater from the FTX one in Galveston
with no problem. Really like that antenna just because it's
(05:46):
very small in compact. Another one that I've used in
Galveston is the spool a tenna. This one's pretty new.
This one's one of the newest ones we're going to
talk about on today's video. This is a unique design.
It comes on a spool. You just kind of put
a screw dry or a small post through the antenna
and you deploy it and it works for HEF bands.
(06:08):
This is an HEF antenna and it'll work for forty
through ten meters. This is basically an infed halfwave intenna
that you can roll out to a certain leg. You
just roll the whole thing out. Actually you roll the
whole thing out, and it's a forty meter infed halfwave,
which means this resonent on ten, fifteen, twenty and forty meters.
Once you roll the antenna out here. You connect it
(06:29):
to the B and C here and then you hang this.
You put this. I put my feed point on the ground.
You can hang the feed point up from a mast
if you want to. I hung the other end of
the antenna up from this map from a mast. In
my video, there's a banana plug that connects right here
as well. This is where you connect your coax and
then this this wire that unwraps connects right here via
banana plug, and you can just put a screwdriver through
(06:52):
the center hole right here and wind it out and
wind it back in fairly easily, kind of like that.
So you can wind it out, wind it in like
that kind of the way it's designed. This piece right
here acts as your toroid and infed halfwave matching unit.
The unon and then the wire, like I said, just
connects right here. Got some really good results from this
(07:13):
antenna when I was in Galveston last time, did a
whole video about the prototype. This is the actual working version,
which is up on their website and for sale right now.
Very small, compact, easy to carry around, and if you
want a forty to ten meters hf intenna, this one.
This one's just great because it's it fits so well
into a pack and you can carry it around pretty
(07:34):
much everywhere you go. It will handle a full hundred
watts on sideband too, so that's always a good thing. Now,
while I'm out on Poda, I always feed my antenna
with Mesi and Plenty Coax. Mezi and Plenty Coax is
the sponsor of today's video. You can save a ten
percent discount on all of their products at the link
in the description below, which will take you to the
Gigabart's website. Use the coupon code of HR two Cables.
(07:56):
HR two Cables get you ten percent off of their
Coax connectors, adapters, their tools for putting adapters on and
taking adapters off of their coacts, their Poda cable, their
colored Ultraflex and Hyperflex cable. All of their products. HR
two Cables get you ten percent off. Check the link
in the description blow and thank them for sponsoring this video.
Another one that's similar but a little bit been out
(08:18):
a little bit longer than this school atenda is this
real podaable antenna? Now it looks like on this website
I just found this earlier. Today they've got a new
version right here. This one right here is a B
and C which is a special order, and then this
one is a new version, and I'm not sure what's
new about that one. This one right here on the
left looks like it's fed with an SO two thirty
(08:40):
nine or PL two fifty nine coacts and that's the
and the one I have is fed. It has an
SO two. The antenna has an SO two thirty nine
on it, so you can connect regular PL two fifty
nine COACX to it. I haven't seen this B and
C one yet, so I'm wondering what's new about this version.
I'm have to email the guys and talk to them
about that. But I had this intenna with me at
park was that is one of the national parks. I
(09:02):
just went to mas Verda National Park. We stayed overnight
in a cabin in the park, and I strung this
antenna out from the balcony of our deck of our cabin,
which was not up very high. I strung it out
into the field and I was making FT eight contacts.
Turn the radio down to fifty watts. This will handle
about forty fifty watts on FT eight. Turn the radio
down to about fifty watts, made fifty fifty two contacts
(09:24):
in about maybe a little bit over an hour or
something like that, maybe about an hour and a half,
maybe about ninety minutes something like that. It might have
been a couple hours. I didn't really look the clock
to see exactly how long it was, but worked great.
Love this antenna. You roll it out all the way,
you get ten meter ft eight, You crank it in
about six or seven times, and you get a full
ten ten fifteen twenty and forty meters infed halfwave antenna.
(09:45):
Great antenna. I made a video about this antenna on
the website when it was brand new. It's up here.
I'll link it right here and you can go check
that out. The last one we're going to talk about
today is the Edfong J pole. Now. I sell the
Edfong J poles on my website, Great Fine Amateur Radio
dot com. It comes in several different variations. The dual
band roll up looks like it's sold out right now.
(10:05):
The dual band roll up is a fantastic one to
put on an HT and set up at a campsite
as well. I had my dual band roll up Edfong
jpole at Hamcashon in Orlando of twenty twenty five, and
I had it connected to my Kinwood D seventy four
and it was up about I don'm twelve or fifteen
feet something like that. So we were bluetooth connecting to
(10:26):
my radio and using the TNC and the Kinwood to
connect to a local wind Link packet. Note. We were
sending real time win Link emails over URF through the
HT Bluetooth to the HT using a WODE wind Link
over Android to connect to the radio and then transmit
RF to a local win Link packet node, and that
(10:47):
worked very well. The dual band in PVC is a
good dual band. You just put it in PVC and
put it up on your house. It doesn't really look
like an antenna, just looks kind of like part of
your plumbing or something. They've got a two twenty monoband version.
They've got a GMRS mono band version, and then they've
got the dual band PVC and the dual band roll up,
(11:07):
both in commercial versions. So there's six variations of this antenna.
He actually does make a tryband one. Also, it's about
seven feet tall and kind of hard to ship, so
I don't carry that one. But again Edfong, you can
find two or three or four dealers around the USA,
and you can contact Ed Fond directly and see what
he might ship to you by himself, because he does
(11:27):
sell direct to the public as well. The price is
reflected on my website or the price is set by Edfong,
so you should be paying the same prices everywhere. But
these have been I've sold over a thousand of these
antennas over the last three to four years, all different variations,
and they're great antennas for base stations, for packable antennas,
packable roll up j pols, for gmrs, for all of
(11:48):
the bands, and everything like that. So those are my
top six picks for Ham made products. All of the
products I mentioned today are individually owned. They're just a
singer making an antenna or a single couple. Sometimes I
think the spoolten is actually made by a couple, single
couple making an antenna and selling it to the Ham
(12:08):
radio public for a little bit of profit, but also
to give it back to the Ham radio public. So
which one do you like? Have you used any of these,
what do you think about them? And if you have
any more Ham made antennas that you would like to
see me test out, or you think I should know about.
Put a comment in the video below. Thanks for watching.
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Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!