In article ,
"Joel Kolstad" wrote:

I took a look at the antenna you're describing...

"RHF" wrote in message
om...
* Any 'theory' behind why this Idea might Work ?

My thought would be that, at MW frequencies, the 'wire' part of the antenna
is pretty much 'lumped' (no significant phase change along its length), so
you have a standard ferrite rod antenna that you're hooking up via a long
piece of hookup wire. That's a reasonable enough antenna.

As you approach HF, the 'wire' part of the antenna starts to become active
and the two signals combine.

Still, this is very much a 'hands waving' explanation; hopefully someone
else will have a more solid response.

* Does this Idea actually Work ?
* Or is this Idea just so much Antenna 'hype' and Sales Marketing

I imagine it works as well as either antenna alone (the ferrite rods or the
long wire) would, and the real question is... do the two together produce
any significant additional gain? I suspect not (much), but even if so,
sometimes a wideband standard gain antenna is more desirable than a higher
gain single bander.

Work is not a very well defined word. The antenna will work in that it
will pick up some signal and deliver it to the radio. I think you mean
to ask how well compared to another antenna.

I pretty much agree with what Joel wrote but add the following
explanation. Any time you add some type of coil to a wire you are
electrically increasing the electrical length over the physical length
of the wire. The coil on the end will cause the wire part of the antenna
to resonate at a lower frequency. This is generally not a good or
effective way to make a sensitive antenna but it will "work."

Generally a wire antenna will pick up a significant amount of signal
energy at frequencies above its electrical length and perform much worse
below its resonate frequency so basically this looks like a attempt to
get a rather short piece of wire (16 feet) to "work" down to a frequency
far below its resonant physical length.

The BALAN coil depending on design could be a good thing in that it will
cause the high impedance of the wire to be closer on average to the
impedance of the coax cable part of the antenna and the radios input.

--
Telamon
Ventura, California