Building a Carbon Fibre Dual Band Yagi Antenna for Amateur Radio Satellites with 3D Printed Parts for 20€
Back in early 2017 we posted about Manuel's (aka DO5TY / Tysonpower) design for a single band 140 MHz 3D printed carbon fibre Yagi antenna. Today he's submitted a new video about creating a dual band 3D printed carbon fibre cross Yagi antenna for only 20€. Note that the video is narrated in German, but there are English subtitles. He's also uploaded an English text tutorial to his blog, which includes links to the 3D printer STL files.
The antenna is designed to be a low cost replacement for the commonly used Arrow dual band 2m/70cm antenna which is designed for receiving and transmitting to amateur radio satellites. Many amateur radio satellites have an uplink frequency set at around 145 MHz, and a downlink frequency around 435 MHz (and some satellites have the frequencies reversed). So a dual band Yagi is ideal for these satellites. Manuel writes that with his 5W Baofeng handheld he's already made several successful contacts with his new antenna.
Manuel's antenna consists of several 3D printed joints, with a carbon fibre rod used as the main boom. Aluminum rods make up the receiving and transmitting elements. The video also discusses impedance matching and how he uses a diplexor so that there is only one connection required to the radio. The advantage of his antenna over the Arrow is that it is significantly cheaper, and also much lighter in weight.
![[EN subs]Carbon Arrow Yagi Antenne - leichte Dual Band Yagi für 20€ bauen](https://www.rtl-sdr.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FTch40KB0T94%2F0.jpg)
Hi ! Thanks for your design
Does this antenna also work for 140 MHz as the previous 2017 one and allow to listen for 2M satellites (NOAA, Meteor M2, ISS etc) ?
Of course it does, it is made for 145-146mhz but i is also decent a few mhz up/down the band as moast Antennas for 2m/70cm bands.
regards,
Manuel
I thought carbon was conductive (to some degree). No?
It is, but not as good as metal for example. The Element’s are not touching it directly, so it has no effect.
You could also use Aluminium tube or a stiff plastic/Glasfiber or so.
If the design would have used a sugar cane that would have been novel, especially so close to X-MAS 😉
Unless the Boom that supports the radiating elements has to be conductive, any material will do and not influence performance, from paper, carbon-, glass-fiber- or metall or as proposed above a sugar cane.