Introduction: Build a CB Ariel / Antenna 1/4 Wave for Less Than a £1 WIFI

About: Im someone who cant sit around on my work days off watching tv, so like to make things. I look at something then think " I could make that " i then set about using as much upcycled & recycled materials as i ca…

Have you ever had horrible neighbours or a non understanding landlord who would moan if you put a CB ariel on the side of the house ?, I have but came up with this cheap and easy to make solution. Make it in your loft or attic in less than an hour for less than £1 and only you will know its there. It works a treat and will work as well as any cheap bought 1 that will cost you around £20. I used wire that was meant to be for holding a thin garden fence up, a bit of earth wire out of a cable & a junction box bought from Wilkinson's for 89p. Any sort of thick wire is ok to use so just about everyone has a bit laying round somewhere. First of all I cut 5 equal lengths of the wire, Each piece needs to be 105" long. Then I screwed the junction box to a floor joist and drilled a small hole in the junction box lid. Next get a length of coax, if your making this you most probably have some off an old ariel  (even old tv coax will do). Bare the end and join the outer coax cable using the junction box to 4 of the bits of wire you have already cut. Then join the inner coax using the junction box to the last bit of wire and feed this wire through the hole in the lid. Spread out the 4 bits of wire along the floor at 90 degrees to each other. The remaining wire coming out the lid was them fixed to a roof rafter, it was to long so I simply wound it around a pop bottle then took the bottle away (see photo) I think it looks pretty good lol. Lastly, connect your CB to the other end. I used an old CB to test it pushing out 4 watts and my mate over 2 miles away received me at +30. I later checked the SWR and it was 1 - 1.3 which is bloody good even if I do say so myself. 1 thing I will say is if your using an expensive rig check the SWR straight away and if you need to, use a matcher as I don't want anyone giving me grief that there £1000 rig has blown up lol.1 more thing, I did run a 40 watt linear on it 1 time and did notice that the vertical wire got hot when I keyed up for a long while (hence the reason to use thick wire and all I would say is be careful, heat = fire = dead)  The length stated is for use on 27mhts but other lengths can also be used for other frequencies............................ .Oh yea votes gratefully received as well please lol.

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