Experimentals: The Series Vol. 2

INTRO: You will see this before every Experimentals volume.

The gears are always a turning in my head. So many ideas that normally just fizzle due to time or complexity. Those that make their way to the virtual workbench I might just post up here. I want to showcase some of the ideas that I have had that seemed like a good idea at some point. What you may see here are 3D prints that are probably not final revisions, but most likely the starting point of an idea that deserves discussion or further development. Sometimes I get some idea for a product that just seems cool and sometimes they are a real solution to a problem I have had.

Above is a 3D printed dipole center insulator/connector. The goal of this idea was to incorporate a panel mount SO-239 and dipole center insulator in a small package. Top hole is used to attach rope or string and supports the center of the dipole antenna. The two outer holes you would put bolts and nuts where your antenna wires would attach using ring terminals and also connection point for the SO-239. The SO-239 panel mount would bolt onto the bottom. You could run a small ring terminal from one of the 4 mounting bolts to one side of the dipole and the center pin of the coax connector would have a wire soldered to it and ran to the other side. I have almost always ran a 1:1 balun when building my dipoles, but that isn’t always necessary, at least for some. Through some clamp on ferrites on your coax and you are good to go. Small package that fits easily in your go kit. I’m thinking of doing a modification to allow the use of bulk head style SO-239s.