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Lectrosonics antennaes in a pinch?


cory

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I have a buddy about to do a gig in Denver tonight (not from Denver, so unfamiliar with the area) who is the unfortunate situation of having received a 411 and um400 with no antennaes.

1) anyone know of any places out there that he can purchase these from easily?

2) if not, does anyone have any RadioShack DIY suggestions?

Keeping my fingers crossed!

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no joke.

put a paperclip - or any suitably sized bit of conductive metal into the antenna sockets and you'll get some signal.

perhaps put some blutac or something similar around the paper clip to make it a little harder for the paperclip to fall out

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Take some coax cable (w/ bnc ends for the RX, SMA for the TX), cut it to 1/4 wave length. Strip off the jacket and braid/foil, keeping the core conductor in its insulation as your whip.

Perfect suggestion by Ben.

Quarter wavelength in inches = 3000 divided by frequency in MHz, i.e., for 600 MHz then 3000/600= 5 inches.

Best,

Larry F

Lectro

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Thanks Ben/Larry-- y'all are the best!

 

C

 

 

Take some coax cable (w/ bnc ends for the RX, SMA for the TX), cut it to 1/4 wave length. Strip off the jacket and braid/foil, keeping the core conductor in its insulation as your whip.

Where would he find the coax with SMA ends? Radioshack? 

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Update: he couldn't find a SMA connector that fit the transmitter at RadioShack. Unfortunately the folks there generally know more about retail than their stock these days. I'd be curious to know if anyone knows an item that can be easily found at RadioShack or home depot that would work...

But we did find luckily find an awesome fellow soundie to help him out with a 411 + um400 kit!

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Pretty awesome YouTube! Where can I easily source those cables from when we're on the go? Would it be available at Home Depot? RadioShack? My buddy in Denver couldn't find anything useable on the fly...

that's why I mentioned paper clips as you can find them just about anywhere. if you can source cables and make better antennas - great! but if you can't ...

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Gordon recently uploaded this video showing the details of making an antenna out of coax cable.

 

 

This video is great however I'm a bit concerned about the 'bare' core not being covered by heat-shrink. I've never seen an antenna without a plastic/rubber cover and I'm wandering whether there's a reason for this i.e. the bare wire 'shorting' on skin or some other slightly conductive surface. Are my concerns justified? 

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This video is great however I'm a bit concerned about the 'bare' core not being covered by heat-shrink. I've never seen an antenna without a plastic/rubber cover and I'm wandering whether there's a reason for this i.e. the bare wire 'shorting' on skin or some other slightly conductive surface. Are my concerns justified?

just durability.
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Radio Shack has some sort of SMA stuff. Offhand i bought right angle adapters and crimp on SMA ends. I was able to get the parts to make a BNC-SMA cable (including the cable itself) and it worked fine. Maybe stock varies store to store, but they should have the parts. If not, FedEx from a proper dealer is the backup plan.

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I dig DIY and Macgyver solutions. And totally dig Gordon's diy dipole. But I'm also lazy so I carry a couple Remote Audio pre-made uncut Miracle Whip antennas. Clip to length for you particular block. Available with BNC or SMA connectors:

 

http://www.remoteaudio.com/antennas/ 

 

Glad someone was able to help out your pal, Cory.

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