Homebrew Lightweight 6 Meter Moxon

1 – PVC pipe 1-2″ in diameter and 12″ or so long. Dimension according to your preferences.

4 – 48″ fiberglass sticks. I found fiberglass reflective driveway markers at the hardware store for about $3.50 apiece.

12″ tubing, cut into four equal length pieces. These go on the ends of the sticks; you’ll see in a second.

50 ohm coax – exact type and length your choice; I used RG-58.

1 – PVC pipe about 3″ long, maybe 1″ in diameter to wrap the coax around for a balun

3 insulators. Use pieces of plastic cut from soda bottles or some small diameter nylon rope.

Stranded Wire. I used some junkbox #22 stranded with insulation.

One of the fiberglass sticks.

Four 3″ pieces of tubing are notched.

The notched tubing pieces are placed on the ends of the four fiberglass sticks. These hold the antenna wire in place.

Eight holes are drilled in the PVC. The four fiberglass sticks are inserted into these holes to form an “X”. I made my PVC about a foot long so I could place it on top of a mast. There is a set screw towards the bottom to secure it on the mast. If you’re not concerned with putting this on a mast and want the antenna as lightweight as possible for backpacking, you can make the PVC about three inches long.

Drilling the holes right was the hardest part of this because I had to do it freehand. If you have a drill press it’s a lot easier to drill the holes accurately.

Here’s the balun and the center insulator made out of milk jug plastic (and a bit hard to see). The next time I make one of these I’m going to make the balun be the center insulator.

The assembled antenna, top view…

Here’s the Moxon on the air for the 2009 CQ WW VHF Contest; I operated as a QRP Hilltopper. I ratchet-strapped a 15′ one inch mast to the Jeep spare tire and stacked the Moxon and a Radio Shaft FM broadcast yagi converted to 2 meters.