How to make a simple outdoor antenna for a Weather Radio

Yep. That's the way it's commonly done, only it's cheaper and easier to use hobby grade brass tubing for the ground sleeve. Something like this: The common 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi rubber ducky antenna is built much the same way: I would put a brass washer over the cable jacket, push the braid through the hole, spread it out across the washer, solder, and then solder on the brass tube. Then, make a conical pile of RTV or other sealant to shed water and keep it out of the coax cable.

However, if you want to be really cheap (like me), use aluminum duct tape for the ground sleeve. I add a few layers of PEX tubing over the RG-6/u to increase the diameter and to seperate the duct tape sleeve from the coax braid. The aluminum duct tape goes over the outside of the tubing. The braid and foil go over the aluminum duct tape, and another layer of aluminum duct tape is added to hold the braid in place and to provide an electrical connection.

That would work, but I like the brass washer idea better or just glue everything inplace with RTV, hot melt glue, or whatever falls off the shelf.

With antennas, the uglier it looks, the better it works.

Are you sure? Use a magnet to check. I just cut off a piece of the center wire from some junk RG6 coax. The center wire looks like it's all copper, even after I cut it with diagonal cutters several times. However, a magnet tells the real story by sticking to the wire. It's copper plated steel.

Might as well play with the braid: What I did was strip back the jacket to expose the braid. I then shoved a piece of post it note paper under the braid so we can see the braid without the foil background. I then pulled it tight so as not to increase the diameter (much) and taped the end to hold the mess in place. Notice the rather large gaps between the strands in the braid. My guess(tm) is about 40% coverage.

The markings in the cable are: RG6 HIGH PERFORMANCE 2.25 GHZ DIGITAL CABLE E236426 18AWG UL

Agreed. I started this by mentioning that PVC will detune and move the resonance point of a VHF antenna, and may add a little loss. Neither problem is particularly critical for a low gain VHF receive only antenna. PVC will work, but fiberglass will work better.