The ZS6BVR “End-fed” “SlimJim” as receiving Antenna for the SDR Receiver

• by skullkey
• December 21, 2012

This antenna is designed to give you 3dB gain over a dipole and its omni-directional  for use with your SDR receiver

Its so easy to make antennas with different lengths

I used Banana sockets so you can make many antennas of different lengths for the different bands giving you gain as well as a frequency range

This antenna consists of two wires: a long one connected to the Black Banana socket
and a short one in front of that connected to the red Banana socket

The Slim Jim is a variation of the JPole antenna and my designed is the “End-Fed variation” of that.

To calculate the lengths we will give you a link below

I bought the Banana Plugs and sockets and ribbon cable at an Electroning shop the rest of the parts from Builders warehouse in prepacked “Ellies TV cables and connectors” bags

We will make the antenna
Step 1 terminate your ribbon cable with a pair of Red and Black Banana Plugs

Step 2 At a quater wavelength above the Red Banana Plug  (Length C in Calculator) cut a piece of the “Red line” to make a gap (Length E in Calculator)

Step 3 make the total length of the ribbon cable from the bottom of the Black Banana plug  (Length A in Calculator) and join the “Red line” to the “Black line” at the top:

Do not do this step until you have completed the housing you may need to add the length

We will make the antenna housing
Step 4 Drill two holes on the top of the box one nearest to you put the Black Banana socket the other place the red Banana socket

Step 5 Drill a hole on the side of the box nearest to you and mount the Coax Female-Female Barrel connector

Step 6 Make a cable with Coax Plug on one side  and  to the banana sockets on the other side The inner conductor is soldered to the red banana socket
the outer shield is crimped to the black banana socket  
Step 7 connect a “Ellies” cable from the coax socket to input of the SDR receiver

I have a space in the middle of the box for a wooden dowel  to act a support for hanging you antennas on it

The way I have made this box,  you can build other types of antennas to plug on this box

The M0UKD Slim Jim Antenna Calculator:
http://www.m0ukd.com/Calculators/Slim_Jim/   (Dont worry that they short the bottom of the antenna its because they are using a tuning stub for transmitter matching and we are connecting to it as “End fed”)

This antenna is designed to give you 3dB gain over a dipole and its omni-directional  for use with your SDR receiver Its so easy to make antennas with different lengths I used Banana sockets so you can make many antennas of different lengths for the different bands giving you gain as well as a frequency…