Ground Plane Ideas

Hi all,

I am having great fun with my first dipole however, it is limited and I don't get much in the way of good local contacts which I know are out there.
To get round this I have ordered a Sirio 5000 performer on a magmount for local stuff.
I cannot have an external antenna so have to make use of my loft.
What I am looking for is ideas for a decent ground plane to get the most out of the Sirio, I dont have great expectations due to the fact it will be in my loft.
Another limitation is the size of my loft hatch and getting large sheets of metal up there.
After reading various bits and bobs, i'm unsure what to use, be it lengths of wire, bits of metal joined together or whatever.
Back in the day it was so simple with a DV27 and a biscuit tin  .

Any ideas folks?

Thanks

Tam

I remember back then people putting foil strips in there loft under the biscuit tin.
Never did it myself so not sure if it worked or not.

Texts say 2x 9' strings of wire at 180° from each other will suffice, 3x or 4x at spaced at equal distance will be better. But get it onto any flat bit of metal or wire to begin with and it will work. Try with what you've got and add to it or change it if you need later.

SangueG wrote:

Texts say 2x 9' strings of wire at 180° from each other will suffice, 3x or 4x at spaced at equal distance will be better. But get it onto any flat bit of metal or wire to begin with and it will work. Try with what you've got and add to it or change it if you need later.

Thanks!

Is that say, 4 x 9ft of wire with one end of each wire under the magnet and then all stretched out?
If I say have a 1 metre square bit of metal, could these wires then be attached to the corners of the metal and stretched out?

I will mess about but great ideas-Thanks

Tam

If you do that, the wires can be slightly shorter as the square bit of metal will form part of the length of each.
If your bit of metal is big enough to span a couple of joists rather than a full metre square it's going to be a lot easier to fit up the hatch.
Suggestion, if you add connectors around the edge in the first instance, rather like this, you can add and subtract different wires easily as you experiment.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f44/20/52/52/14/radial10.png

Canobeer wrote:

If you do that, the wires can be slightly shorter as the square bit of metal will form part of the length of each.
If your bit of metal is big enough to span a couple of joists rather than a full metre square it's going to be a lot easier to fit up the hatch.
Suggestion, if you add connectors around the edge in the first instance, rather like this, you can add and subtract different wires easily as you experiment.

https://i.servimg.com/u/f44/20/52/52/14/radial10.png

Thanks, that looks a cracking idea pal and i'm with you on the wire lengths, cheers

Back in the good old 80's I used an old 6 foot radiator in my attic with a magmount, Worked a treat.

had the same thing night prowler as my dad was a plumber so loads of old rads put to use

Yeah just remember to drain any water out first  

Ok, I now have the Sirio mag mount up in the loft on a decent amount of metal, the SWR is excellent on 28 MHz but touching 3 at 27 MHz, I'd like to get a happy medium between the bands, any ideas? Thanks

Tam

The antenna needs to be slightly longer.