49 mhz antenna

Hello YARDBIRDFAN127. One place for you to look for the antenna you need is this company, which has a good variety, and they will cut antennas to your needed length.

http://progressive-concepts.com

I had some 49 MHz walkie talkies decades

ago.

As I'm sure you know, Radio Shack had several

1 channel 49 MHz rigs - a handheld, and some

other radios with VOX and headset mike/headphones.

Radio Shack also had a 5 channel handheld.  It was

a lot more useful because you could get around some

of those "baby monitors'' and cordless phones.  (Very hard to

find now I think.) 

That was way back in the 1980s, of course. 

I think the band is a lot clearer now. (?)

I wonder if that is really true.

Bruce

Hello Bruce,
49 mhz walkie talkies are fairly easy to track down on such places as eBAY, I have collected a number of them both AM and FM, including two base stations (General Electric and Maxon). I have the 5 channel Radio Shack/Realistic sets that you mention, also two Maxon 5 channel sets. I've also collected some of the Archer Space Patrol sets, just for fun.
Sadly nobody seems to manufacture 49 mhz radio transceivers now that I know of, a shame really.
Where I live there are still some baby monitors but not many, you can always find around four of the five channels free.

a 1/4 wave for 49.800 mhz is 1.432 (56.386 in.) so you will need a modest loading coil to bring it to resonance making the whole package (TX and antenna) mag mount and weather proof will allow you to place it to a magnetic surface such as a car roof or steel roof on a building and utilize it as a counterpoise. also remember it is 100mW input to the battery terminals not the final you you have to minimize not just final losses but losses of the entire transmission circuit. this means a simplest of simple crystal controlled NBFM transmitter ciruit and separate the transmit and receive circutry making them two separate circuits and setup a switching circuit to disconnect power to the RX when in tx mode. i had put considerable thought into how to make a great efficient DX setup for 49 MHz.

The 5 channel 49 MHz walkie talkies at Radio Shack

were $35.00.  I should have bought 2 for $70.00 and

then I would have been done with it.  I really wanted

them.  This must have been about 1984 or 1985. 

In those days, there were no small 2 way "personal" radios of

any kind.  CB walkie talkies, of course, were huge

and had those gigantic whips 50 inches or more.

The batteries ran down very fast in the higher

powered units. 

It is great that you have all of these.  My 1 channel

Radio Shack units went pretty far, maybe 1/3 or 1/2

mile where 49.830 MHz was clear.  Being able to open

the squelch would have helped a great deal. 

I believe the input to those rigs was about 5 mw, but

I'm not sure.  Some hams converted them to the 6 meter

ham frequency of 52.525, an FM calling channel there.

Midland came out with a 27 MHz FM walkie talkie that

operated between a few of the numbered CB channels.  If you

know the frequencies of the CB channels you know what

I mean.  Between 3 or 4 channels is a slightly larger space.

Radio controlled toys still operate there. 

Lafayette radio came out with some real heavy duty metal

cased 49 MHz walkie talkies early on, about 1980, when

the rules might not have been clear.(?)  These might have

been 100 mW into the final RF stage.  There were many

people that thought 100 mW 27 MHz Part 15 walkie talkies

would end up on 49 MHz and be widely used, just like the

100 mW 27 MHz units were. 

Once really funny thing.  I had an 2 meter synthesized FM

mobile rig (an IC-22S) I took the lights out - put it in a

big case with an over shoulder strap and went all over the

place with that.  (The lights were taken out to save power.)

Here's the funny part.  I used rechargable batteries to run it.

I charged the batteries in a Radio Shack 6 channel 5 watt

walkie talkie, with the 27 MHz rig's charger!  Then I used

them for the 2 meter rig.  The connection to the original

topic here is getting pretty thin now.  I'll have to finish the

story on the "Yesterday Radio" thread.

I really loved 49 MHz.  

Bruce 

It's 100 mW to the battery terminals but

only if you build it.  Is that correct - or do

I have it wrong?  I have often thought that

a digital mode like PSK31 would be great on

49 MHz.

Cool ideas, Robert.

I hope I have your name correct.  Your

collection of 49 MHz gear is very impressive.

Have you tried any range experiments where

you compared the different makes of radios?

Bruce