Antennas
48 foot (14.6 meters) Vertical
We are currantly using a 48 foot (14.6 meters)vertical E-Field antenna
for recording VLF. It is made from various parts, the mount is made from
parts of a large industrial computer, a wide milk crate, nuts, bolts, and
some hose clamps. The computer parts are large (23" x 10" x 5/8") aluminum
watercooled heatsinks. They are used for support, we put counterweights
on them to keep it from tipping over. The antenna is held in place with
aluminum tubing (1 1/2" x 17") hoseclamped to the milk crate with a fiberglass
tube (1 1/2" Inner dia. x 12") bolted onto it; to insulate the ground
from the antenna element. The antenna itself is made up of several
sections of aluminum tubing, starting with 1 1/2" diameter tubing at the
bottom, 1/4" rod at the top. We purchased the antenna element parts at
M2 or M squared Enterprises. Mike Staal at M2 helped select the parts we
needed to have a good, strong antenna. It takes about 15 minutes to set
up, and about 10 to break it down. Click on the pictures to download full
size images below.
50 foot (15.2 meter) Loop
This was a B-Field Loop antenna, it was 30 feet tall, at the apex,
it had a triangle shape, the wire was spread out 25 feet on each side just
above the ground. It had 5 turns of 16 gauge wire, I took over 600 feet
of wire to make it, I used some aluminum tubing to hold the wire at the
top. High strength dacron rope were used for guy wires, It took at least
two people to set it up. We have recorded with
it on a couple of occasions, the recordings are available on the Recordings
page. It has since been dismantled, a new, lighter version is in the
works.
75 foot (22.9 meter) Long Wire
This was the antenna we set up on our first VLF outing, 75 feet (22.9
meters) of bare copper wire,
one end was tied to the mirror on the vehicle, the other end was supported
with a hat rack pole.
6 Foot (1.8 meter) whip
Cliff designed this really neat whip antenna mount using Radio Shack
TV antenna wire standoff insulators and some wire ties.
