Last month I finished installing a dual band J-Pole antenna based on the design of W4ULD published in the October 2000 QST. This antenna was built for my father Scott, KC2RFU. The most difficult part was procuring the small diameter copper pipe. The mounting bracket we built used a muffler clamp and half rounds held the antenna. In the picture below KC2RFU is working on the mounting bracket.
It took some concerted effort to to install the antenna near the high point of the roof. Since the installation took longer than expected we had to deal with weather that was much cooler and grimmer on the second day.
KC2RFU next to the antenna at his QTH
After any antenna is installed the first thing you want to do is test it. It seemed to be working just fine after doing some basic smoke tests. I then installed an SWR/powermeter to test the antenna. We got approximately a 1.5:1 SWR on 2m. We then tuned in a local 2m repeater and keyed up with success. What followed was a good 30 minute long QSO on both 2m and 440 simplex.
