Copper Tape: use in antennas, suggestions wanted.

At a rally earlier this year I acquired some surplus copper tape. It was a few pounds (Sterling) and seemed too good to not buy. It was promptly lost in the rubbish in my shack until earlier today when it surfaced for the first time in 8 or 9 months. :slight_smile:

The tape is 33 mm wide and approx. 0.1 mm thick. The copper is covered with some plastic and only a narrow 5mm strip of copper is exposed which solders easily. The whole reel weighs 985 g and I guestimate there is at least 25 m on the reel, maybe quite a bit more.

Your mission over the Christmas and New Year holidays is to think of some kind of antenna that is worth building out this Copper tape because I can’t!

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One of these for 70cm (maybe 2m?) on a sheet of cardboard or plywood: SOTA – 23cm PCB Yagi – mounting a SMA socket | Get out of the Radio Shack and Live Life

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Turn one of the gutters at FMF towers into a 10m dipole and say you’re ‘blinging them up’

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Foldup 2m/70cm dual-band Moxon on Corflute using 5mm copper shielding tape. Made the afternoon before VHF contest. It’s done a couple of years now.

Folds up, velcro to keep it closed and a bit of velcro stapled on the handle to stop it sliding out

Super easy to tune a foil antenna by folding the foil back. The holes are vital to make it somewhat stable in gentle breezes.
Coax has to be tied and glued down so it doesn’t move at all or you lose break the foil at the connections.

Extra strips of corflute for stiffness

Handle slots onto a bit of pcb.
Balun is the coax coiled around the handle.

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Since y’all are stuck in some kind or arctic hell up there, trying to stay warm by looking at pictures of coal on 't internet, and no sane man would go outside his igloo (well anywhere above the tropic of cancer, truth be told) , you should just stick it to the glass on your biggest window, and tune it up as a mag loop.

Pro Tip: a 1m diameter loop on 60m is about the right inefficiency so that 100W TX power will give you 15W EIRP.
Also you can make the tuning cap by putting kapton tape over the copper tape, then running the other arm’s foil over the top to make the cap.

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QSO Today, John W6NBC, Practical Metal Foil Tape Antennas might have some ideas.

73, Jaakko oh7bf/ac1bb

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If you tune it, won’t it make it worse as a heating element?

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Maybe, but this is the time of year we re-tune all our antennas. Any power reflected back makes it so hot in the shack, I have to yell out and make the old girl put down her bodice ripper, tuck the mamms back in, and bring me another pisco sour.

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You can use the tape as a sleeve on a “flowerpot dipole” to make it work better on a higher band: Dual Band Half-Wave Flower Pot Antenna – VK2ZOI

I used aluminium duct tape for mine, but I didn’t have any cheap copper tape lying around.

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Andy will sell you some for 10 times what he paid for it. That will help him keep up his membership of the Scottish Club and secure his right of residency. :joy:

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Certainly… need to renew the VED soon on my car. I thought it was dropping to £165 this year but it has a final year at £520 then drops. Then we will need 4x tyres before Summer at £800 for the set. :frowning:

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Interesting video. Thanks.

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Wrap it around a chunk of Toblerone and you’ll have a Swiss delta loop for one of the microwave bands, dependant on the size of Toblerone.

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Hi Andy,
I built a collapsible VHF yagi (3 ele) and have the elements cut by the center to help with the transportation.
I used adhesive copper foil in the boom (wooden dowel) to provide the joint at the center point.

All details in the PDF

73 de Ignacio

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Look also for the John’s W6NBC book: Slot Antennas for Ham Radio - the VHF and UHF antennas are made out of 1 inch aluminium or copper band.
73 es HNY
de Greg DL3GJ

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A 2m oblong loop or 2m delta loop stuck to the inside of the shack window. The benefit of the oblong loop is the feed point is 50 ohms.

The test will be if the XYL spots it!?

Andrew VK1AD

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Had to look that one up. Now off to the liquor store to see if they have any Pisco. . .

73 and HNY!

Jim KK0U

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Maybe a magnetic loop for 20, 30 and 40m?

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Well Andy, just saw your post but the first thing that came to mind was to cut the tape into strips to make your own circuit board for small projects.

Or use it to screen projects in a plastic box

You could make an on- glass antenna for the vehicle, low profile, VHF or UHF.

HNY

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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Here is one!

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