On Mon, 23 May 2005 22:09:24 -0500, Cecil Moore
wrote:

Jayson Davis wrote:
I came across this web site (http://k9erg.tripod.com/theory.htm) and he
says that if properly matched, you could load up a paperclip on 160
meters and it would work. I'm not so certain, since this thing should
be so full of capacitive reactance that the losses in the matching
network should be astronomical.

Any thoughts?

It's a play on words. If you cannot get the power into
the paper clip, it is not "properly matched". Ergo, a
it is impossible to "properly match" a paper clip on 160m.

Well, suppose that it "could" be done.
Take a large paperclip and stretch it
out to its full 4-inch length and note
its 0.05-inch diameter. Too lazy to
dig out my Kraus or Jasik, I plug those
numbers into EZNEC (it complaining loudly
all the while about minimum segment
length) and come up with a radiation
resistance of 0.0001818 ohms when feeding
the stretched-out paperclip as a monopole
against a perfect ground on 1.9 MHz.

Now, I want to run my 1500-watt ham rig
into the paperclip and get efficient
radiation. To do this requires that I
pass 2872 amps of RF current into the
base of the 0.05-inch diameter paperclip.

I think I see a problem here.....

k7jeb