On Sep 10, 2020, at 9:12 AM, Alan G4ZFQ <alan4alan@...> wrote:

effort only to find out that a coat hanger does a better job than my antenna

Brian,

That's the way!
Use straightened coat hangers, I'd bet you would find it very difficult to prove a "proper" antenna was better.

73 Alan G4ZFQ

Since you are NOT transmitting, SWR really doesn't matter all that much. Why not use the tried and true method of a dipole cut for 54.310Mhz and the reflector 5% longer and director 5% shorter. The spacing set to .125 the wavelength on the director/reflector distance to driven element.

Coincidentally I recently built this quick and dirty 8 element Yagi for 434 MHz. I used pieces of 14 gauge wire for the elements, coat hangers would have been better :)

https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,69753.0.html


Chris Smolinski
Black Cat Systems
Westminster, MD USA
https://www.blackcatsystems.com