Universal Carbon Yagi Antenna By Tyson Power MKII (4mm holes)

thingiverse

I discovered that the 2mm rod size was too restrictive, so I drilled out some 4mm holes to accommodate a more widely available aluminum rod and added extra support material to account for the increased weight. You can use any metal you prefer for the rods, but I opted for aluminum to keep it lightweight. I purchased my 4mm x 1m rods from www.lenehans.ie, only needing 3m in total. Additionally, you should be able to repurpose any old coaxial cable; I salvaged one from behind a TV with a double coating and it functioned perfectly. If you plan to use RTL SDR, make sure the connection on your antenna wire is a male SMA type, and always verify for safety's sake. The signal wire connects to the foremost rod of the two in the assembly, as per Tyson Power's document. I found aluminum clamps on Amazon for a surprisingly affordable 15 euros! Although pricey, they work beautifully. Exercise caution when printing with support material anywhere other than the build plate; you don't need supports inside the hole. If you do this, you'll have to remove the support material and may delaminate the part in the process. Scaling to 10% for slicing should yield a successful print. Note that you cannot solder aluminum; that's why I used terminals as shown. Keep this in mind for future projects! Also, soldering to rods connected through the PLA hole will partially melt them, causing them to bend and flex. You can fix this by using a hair dryer with the narrowing attachment that comes with it – it works like a charm. Thanks to TysonPower for creating an excellent design and sharing their knowledge! Happy building!