One of the things that I keep telling myself that I need to learn how to do is 3D printing. This morning, I ran across a couple more 3D printing projects for ham radio that I thought I’d pass along.
The first I found on reddit: 3D Printed Parts for Portable Tape Measure Yagi Designs.The summary on Thingiverse says:
These parts are made for use with 1 inch PVC pipe and 1″ harbor freight tape measure steel. You can use electrical tape to attach the element holders to the side of the pipe, and use the driven element bridge to give structural rigidity across the driven dipole element. I have used this with up to 5 elements on 2m with good success. When not using the antenna, just pinch the elements to remove them from the holders, and store them INSIDE the tube! you can add some end caps to make this ultra portable. Use these parts with any of the multitude of tape measure YAGI design guides online.
Here’s a look at an antenna made with these parts:
The element holders are attached to the boom with electrical tape in the photo above. While I haven’t tried it, I’d suggest that the antenna might be a bit more robust if you could screw or perhaps glue the holders to the boom.
There are lots of other cool amateur radio 3D printing projects available on Thingiverse. Browsing through the list quickly, here are just two that look like they might be useful to me:
- Soldering Fingers. This project looks simple and quick.
- µBitx Case. I still gotta do something with the µBitx I bought (see image at right).
Have any of you 3D printed anything cool for your ham radio projects? Is there another source of designs for ham radio 3D printed stuff besides Thingiverse?
Dinesh, AB3DC says
Thingiverse is the best source. So far, I have printed a PCB Vise, Bencher Keyer Dust Cover, multiple Raspberry Pi Cases, Insulators, Microphone ethernet jack protectors and a few other items.
One thing that I have been wanting to build for a very long time is a Lindenblad Antenna for satellite reception. Below is a collection of my ham radio and electronic stuff that I would like to print or have already printed including the Lindenblad Antenna.
https://www.thingiverse.com/AB3DC/collections/ham-radio
https://www.thingiverse.com/AB3DC/collections/electronics
Oliver Krystal says
Absolutely I use my 3d printer for ham gear. There’s over 50 printed pieces (11 different parts) in my Go Box.
ted k7fle says
I use Thingiverse but more often I design brackets and utilitarian things from scratch in OpenSCAD. I prefer the programmatic approach to the “3d cad UI” approach.
If you want a handful of things printed, ping me and I’ll send them to you, gratis.
Dan KB6NU says
On /r/amateurradio, there’s a discussion, “Replacing ladder line.” One of the replies linked to a company selling a product called LadderSnap, which is a spacer that lets you make your own open wire feedline.
I suggested that perhaps you could 3D print your own spacers for less than the 35 cents per spacer that LadderSnap is charging. In reply to that, VE2HEW supplied a couple of links to 3D-printed, open-wire feedline spacers. He wrote: