G'day All,
I have had a couple of people ask me how I made the two piece antennas on my ASLAV-25.

In this thread I will attempt to answer that. However, I won’t explain all of the different radio types out there that sport the two piece antenna. The list would go on forever. So as usual, check your reference photos in relation to radio harnesses.


Figure 1. Take your favourite piece of sprue, heat it gently so that the plastic stretches. The trick here is to keep the tension just right on the stretched plastic so that when it cools, the sprue remains straight. It may take a few attempts, and it is best to try different brands of plastic as well.

Figure 2. Once you have cut both the “antenna” to length (I won’t go into what lengths they should be, as antenna lengths can change from radio harness to radio harness), sand the thick ends into a cylindrical shape.

Figure 3. With a 0.5mm drill bit, drill out the thick ends of both antennas.

Figure 4. This shows how the tops and bottom antenna are attached. The brass rod inserted into the bottom “ant” is then placed into a pre drilled hole in whatever AMU or Antenna base you are working on.

Figure 5. This drawing shows how they are attached to the different styles of bases.

Cheers Jason

Jason
Great idea and great graphics to illustrate your points. I have had some luck modelling sprue antennas but it was one of my countrymen that suggested using brass rod and I tried it. Right off the bat I hat a couple of really nice tapered antennas, excellent. Now I tried making the various bases by putting some heavier sprue in the chuck of my dremel drill. I could do the "spring" part but tapering to specific styles was less successful.
I'd like to ask about the antenna you have illustrated in figure 5, the wing nut tensioned antenna. I have noticed that earlier Canadian Bison APC's have that type as do some of the Australian PC's/RV's, is that style used today and to what type of com gear is that attached to? I understand if nobody wants to say if it is OPSEC of course.
I'm sure a book could be written about the various antenna rigs and in order to build accurate models it would be nice to know what some of them are and how to fabricate them for scale models.
This is a great contribution Jason, thanks.
Bill

the antenna base with the wing nut is a HF base

the antenna itself can have up to 5 elemnts joined depending on freq that is used

hope it helps

Mark
Thanks for that, any insights into other Aussie antennae? I posted this picture in the ASLAV thread some time ago but it may be more applicable here.
Regards
Bill

Jason,
thanks alot for this tip - very helpful.
thx
Walter

bill
moving from left to right

with out seeing the rest of the antenna im not sure but it could be a satphone antenna looking at the chunkiness of it

not sure on the next one

next one standard VHF antenna base

Mark
Thanks for that. The weird black and white one seems to be an OPSEC issue, haven't seen many of them in the pictures I've collected.
Regards
Bill

Bill: It no secret but that is a electronic counter measure suite antennae. Used for disrupting a radio signal to denote an IED. Look very much like comms gear with standard leads and batteries as as used with radio.

Andy
Thanks for that. It would certainly add an interesting modelling element to the topsides of an ASLAV.
Regards
Bill

Sorry Andy but it's not for ECM. In fact far from it. And as the famous Forest Gump said "thats all I have to say about that".

Cheers Jason

"ROGER THAT ! "