RadioBanter - View Single Post

April 24th 04, 09:51 PM

am (Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.) wrote in message ...
Hi Slick

Your getting above my head on that one.

I know if I move the light back and forth a few inches it will dim and
then go out, there are several points along a dipole where the lamp
will have high brightness and this is where I put the lamps.

I know the CBers used to put a neon lamp on the tip of their mobile
antenna's. I first tried it on a 10 meter mobile and it worked fine.
But on a ground plane it didn't work, then I started moving the light
down the shaft of the antenna and found a spot where it did work just
great.

Back in the good ole days of the Heathkit Sixer lunchbox, I could put
a flourescent lamp against my mobile antenna and it would light up on
transmit. I never could get it to do that when I was using the Saturn
V halo though.

So it sounds like once you find an area where the neon bulb is
very bright, that the brightness will be proportional to the ERP, or
the power that is delivered to the antenna.

This might be a decent, fast-and-dirty sort of power meter, where
you can tell if something is wrong if the bulb isn't as bright as it
should be (assuming it's not raining).

S.