WSHE531 Posted March 1 Author Report Posted March 1 On 2/24/2025 at 10:14 PM, WRYZ926 said: Steve is correct. You will get opinions ranging from hey are junk and no better than a dummy load to they are great antennas. I have a 2m and 70cm Fara-J antennas to test out once the swamp dries up a little. They are clothe j pole antennas made with strips of faraday clothe. You can make your own or buy them from https://vfcomms.com . They make a 6m, 2m, 70cm, GMRS and Meshtastic version of their Fara-j antennas. I went to check the yard today and what a muddy mess. We went from snow and single digit temps all last week to 60 degrees yesterday and today. Good to Know! Quote
WSHE531 Posted March 1 Author Report Posted March 1 On 2/25/2025 at 7:22 AM, Lscott said: I think before that question it's important to understand what it is, and isn't. There is a good write-up at this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-pole_antenna Most of the issues with the antenna stems from it's radiation pattern. Depending on construction and installation the antenna may present some noticeable asymmetric gain characteristics. One other important point is the antenna requires some kind of "decoupling" network for the connecting coax cable. That's typically done using some snap on ferrite cores very close to the feed point, or a coiled up section of the coax cable. If this isn't done then all sorts of weird highly asymmetric gain characteristics may occur along with high SWR readings, and even RF getting back into the radio causing distorted audio. Thanks for the information. Quote
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