Building a 2 meter 1/4 wave ground plane....

[Kamakiri]

Picked up a 2 meter rig cheap on eBay, figuring that it's high time to get back on the amateur airwaves .

I was looking for instructions online on how to build a 2 meter dipole, and came across this:

I tried building some 2 meter dipoles and a coaxial dipole about 20 years ago, and never had much luck in getting them to tune properly. A much easier antenna to build is a 1/4 wave ground plane. All you need to build one is 5 pieces of stiff wire- each about 20-21" long (old wire coat hangers work great) and an SO-239 socket. Much simpler, doesn't need a balun.

Take 4 of the wire pieces and use needle nose pliers to bend 1 end on each wire into a small loop. Use a small machine screw through the loop to attach each one of the 4 wires to the chassis mount holes in the SO-239. Bend the wires so they point down about 30 degrees. Take the 5th wire, solder it to the center pin of the SO-239. Connect PL-259 connector on coax the the SO-239. That's it! Trim the vertical element for minimum SWR, final length should be close to 19". Should also work on 440 as a 3/4 wave antenna, although the radiation angle will be kind of high.

You can stand it up on the floor in the attic on the ground plane, using the 4 radials as "legs". Or use some electrical tape and fishing line and and hang it from the rafters by the vertical element. When I lived in a duplex, I has one sitting in the attic for years and never had a problem with it.

Decided to give it a whirl. I'll let everyone know how I make out. Going to pick up an SO-239 today and finish it up.

Question though, am I going to need to strip the thin clear plastic coating off the hangers, other than at the contact points?

And, does anyone have instructions for a simple 2 meter dipole? With the way I want to set the radio up, it'd make a lot more sense......