Repackaged End Fed Matcher

While looking around at Bunnings Hardware for some inspiration on a simple enclosure for the End Fed Antenna Matcher, I came across some electrical PVC pipe bits that looked interesting.
An idea was to use a 25mm plastic coupling and 2 x 25mm plastic end caps.

The price for 2 sets of these was $1.40.

Electrical PVC 25mm bits

The toroid and capacitor from this post were put inside the PVC coupling.

There is a rib inside the coupling, presumably to stop the tubing going in too far.  This rib was filed out to make a bit more space.

A BNC socket was fitted to one end cap and a 4mm wing nut fitted to the other end cap.  The wing nut also came from Bunnings.  To stop the wing nut undoing completely and getting lost in the pack, a 4mm Nylock nut is screwed into the top of the thread.

Completed Match Unit

The end caps are a tight fit into the coupling, but just to make sure, two small self tapping screws go through the side of the coupling into the end caps. This makes sure that they wont come out.

I didn’t bother with a ground connection on this matcher because it is never used on the old matcher.  With the antenna sweeper connected, the match doesn’t change noticebly with the ground on or off.  There hasn’t been any problem with RF feedback either, even with the 50 W amplifer in use.

The antenna and match now pack up a little smaller than before.  The antenna choke / loading coil 2omm former is now extended in length so that it the antenna can be wound up over it for transport.

Antenna wrapped up

As can be seen in the photo, there are cuts in either end of the 20mm coil former to accommodate the wound antenna for storage.