Yardstick One ANT Choice

[quicksilver123]

Hi.

I'm thinking of purchasing the yardstick one to operate sub1GHz.

I was wondering what the difference was between the ANT500 and the ANT700... I'm not an expert here.

The guy's page says that the ANT500 is lightweight but it also looks a little more ghetto.  The ANT700 seems a little shorter though.  They're both 50 ohms.

 

Thanks.

[NotPike]

Hay,

I would get the ANT700 for the YSO.

The length of the antenna is directly related to the frequency you want to work with and not necessarily it's gain. The ANT700 is an adjustable 1/4 wavelength antenna that gives you a range of lengths that works best for the frequencies the YSO uses. When ever you see something being described as an 1/4th wavelength antenna (or element), the length of the antenna will be 1/4th the wavelength of the frequency you want to work with.

Let's say I want  to know the length of a single element antenna tuned for 300MHz. First we'll need to find the wavelength of 300MHz. To find that you would divide the speed of light in Meters by the frequency in Hz.  300,000,000MPS / 300,000,000Hz = 1 Meter. 1/4th of 1 Meter is 25cm. The max length of the ANT700 is 24.5cm so it's very close to 1/4 the wavelength of 300MHz.

Basically, high frequency short antenna, low frequency long antenna.

 

Here's some more info.

http://www.antenna-theory.com/basics/gain.php

http://www.antenna-theory.com

http://www.hottconsultants.com/techtips/freq-wavelength.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength

[KD6W]

@quicksilver123, for just goofing around on a bench, which antenna you pick doesn't really matter, a paper clip would suffice. For making something that looks a little more polished, in a 3D printed case with nice connectors, either one antenna will do the job. The ghetto antenna relates to the goofy connector and I agree, it's not as slick as the other one but it still works. 50 ohms is relative to the frequency of interest but at those low power levels, again, a paper clip would work all day and you can't blow a YSO up, albeit short of a direct short at the connector but then what's the point? The speed of light is your friend so make your own antenna (468/Freq in MHz = length of dipole in ft). You, wire, a connector and some soldering skills and bingo. Impress your friends and make new ones. The big question is what are you trying to achieve, short term, long term, etc? Stay frosty. 73