Being the CHEAP S.O.B. that I am, I was rather shocked at the price
of the DB-411 and similar antennas when I got tired of replacing the
old fiberglass types every year. These fiberglass colinear antennas
were easily damaged by lightning and corona from the severe storms we
get here in the summer months. SOOOO---- I home-built my own version
of the DB-411.
I made the elements out of 1/4-inch brass so I don't have to worry
about a weap hole to drain water. The supporting element for the
dipole is 1-inch aluminum square tube. The harness was built from RG-
11 coax.
I first built a 4-element version and it worked very well. I later
added four more elements thus making an 8-bay array. This antenna
works great and has performed well beyond expectations. The SWR is
1:1 on the 440 band.
My 440 repeater is located about 10-miles from our desired service
area so a bit of a directional pattern was desired. This was not
possible with the old fiberglass whips since they are an omni pattern
only. With the dipole arrangement, we can focus our rf to the area
we want to serve and not be wasting it in an undesired direction.
The total cost was about $120-dollars for materials.
Happy Hamming!
Gary - W5GNB
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