One of the most important parts of any radio installation is the antenna. This is something of which almost all ham radio enthusiasts as well as many CB enthusiasts are well aware. In some cases, people spend more money on their antenna than the cost of the actual radio. While these expensive antenna systems often do work very well, there are often cheaper alternatives.

In many cases, a low-cost homemade antenna may be a great choice and offer benefits not available with commercial antennas. In this post, you will learn how to make your own single-band vertical antenna.

The only materials you will need to build this antenna are a piece of coax and a connector that will be used to attach the coax to the antenna jack on the back of your radio.
To begin, I attached the connector to the end of the coax. The process for doing this may vary depending on the type of connector that you are using, but should be fairly easy to figure out. This is also possibly the step in which the most technical ability is needed.

Now, go visit my antenna length calculator and determine how long the antenna would need to be for the frequency or band that you will be using your antenna on. The antenna I built is “tuned” for 146.000 and thus can be used on the entire 2 meter band with very low SWR.

For my purposes, I entered 146.000 into the calculator and used the measure for a quarter-wave antenna. At this point, it would be wise to add a couple of inches to that measurement because it’s easier to cut off excess later than try to add more.

Now, strip the outer shielding (the black part) off of the end of the coax opposite of where you installed the connector. Strip an amount equal to the number you arrived at after adding to the results of the antenna length calculator, being careful not to cut the outer conductor.

This next step may take a little bit of time and may seem tedious, but does not take much thought so you can probably do it while watching TV. Start at the end and begin pushing the outer conductor back down the coax. Eventually, it will become loose enough that you can fold the outer conductor back over the part of the coax that still has the outer insulation. You will need to continue to work the outer conductor from the end and eventually it will be folded back over the remainder of the coax. I would suggest you keep working it until it is good and tight against the coax it is folded over. A piece of tape may be needed to hold it in place at the end and will not affect the performance of the antenna.

Now we are ready for the (almost) final step. Refer back to the calculations from the antenna length calculator and cut both the outer part that was folded back and the remaining center conductor (with the inner insulation still covering it) to that length. Then you can simply hang it from the ceiling or tape it to a wall and you are good to go.

Finally, connect it through your wattmeter and check your SWR to make sure all is good. Trim and adjust the length of the two parts to obtain an optimal SWR, and you have just made an easily storable, low cost, well-functioning antenna.