Building
- Place the Tee-fitting on the end of the 10’ of pipe and insert it all the way in. Measure 58” from the inside edge of tee and cut off the excess pipe. Put on the end cap and trim to 57-7/8” Measured from edge of tee to inside edge of cap.
- Take the remainder of the copper pipe and insert it all the way into the elbow. Measure 18-1/2” from the inside edge of the elbow and cutoff excess. Put on cap and trim to 18-1/16”
- Take the remainder of the pipe and insert it all the way into the side of the Tee and measure 1-1/6” and cut off excess. Assemble ground plane elbow all the way in and trim to 1/2” between the inside edge of the tee and inside edge of the elbow.
- Take the remaining section of pipe and insert it into the bottom of the tee. This will be the mounting standard for your J pole and the length doesn’t matter.
Measure everything to make sure everything is cut to the proper size. Then disassemble being careful not to intermix the parts.
- All the copper points need to be thorughly sanded with a fine grit sand paper inside the joints as well as the outside. Then wipe clean, brush a thin coat of flux on all the joints inside and out as you reassemble the J pole. Again after reassembly check the dimensions to be sure you got the parts assembled properly.
- Before you can solder the antenna needs to be elevated a few inches so that you can heat underneath each joint. Make sure that the measurements are still correct and that the radiator is parallel with the ground plane. Pick a joint and start heating from the bottom. Heat the pipe and the fitting. Hold the solder on the top of the joint. When it starts to melt, remove the torch and quickly run the solder around the joint. You’ll have to do this a couple of times. You might also have to apply a little more heat. The solder will be sucked right into the joint. This is what you want. Solder everything else the same way.
I suggest letting it cool for a while before continuing.
- Now attach a stripped back coax to the feed point radiator and the braid to the ground using a pipe clamps as shown on fig 1. Make sure the copper pipe is sanded and polished at the feed points
- Now your ready to adjust your SWR. .
Once you have your desired SWR secure your hose clamps and if you desire you may also solder the joints.
- Apply silicone to the coax end to prevent moisture from entering your feed line.
- A little tape to fix the coax to the J Pole Standard will help keep the coax feed line joints from fatique.
Hook up your radio and make a call.
