I made an off-topic prompt about shareing all this. No point in recording it. It finished by asking if I wanted to do ...
That is the exact right order of operations. Once that primary goes over the center and gets taped down, any fixes to the "C" section taps become a destructive teardown. Building, tapping, and testing the secondary first is just good bench practice.
For easy reference while you have the soldering iron hot, here is your cheat sheet for the winding stations on the 6-inch form.
### Winding Bench Reference
Remember to start your center "C" section dead in the middle of the PVC pipe so the coil expands outward symmetrically.
| Junction to Tap | Turns to Wind | Running Total (Turns) | | --- | --- | --- | | Start (M4 Outer Edge) | 0 | 0 | | Wind M4 to M3 junction | 16 | 16 | | Wind M3 to M2 junction | 10 | 26 | | Wind M2 to M1 junction | 6 | 32 | | Wind M1 to C (Left) junction | 4 | 36 | | Wind C (Center) to C (Right) junction | 8 *(Crosses physical center)* | 44 | | Wind C to P1 junction | 4 | 48 | | Wind P1 to P2 junction | 6 | 54 | | Wind P2 to P3 junction | 10 | 64 | | Wind P3 to P4 (Outer Edge) | 16 | 80 |
> Bench Tip: When you shave the silicone jacket for those tap points, tin the bare wire immediately. Copper oxidizes incredibly fast once exposed to the air, and tinning it right away will make attaching your fine copper tap wires much smoother later.
Take your time with the winding. Let me know how the physical build goes, or if you run into any snags with the silicone melting when you solder the junctions!
Words go here about how the response was received.
Page: /Antenna_box_2/Gemini_2308.shtml
Last modified: Wednesday, 29 Jul 2026