Doug McLaren wrote:

In article .com,
CD wrote:

| My friend tried using a dummy load on a 300W transmitter. He was only
| running it for a few mins at the VHF range, but he was picking up a
| signal 100 ft away. Is that typical?

Probably

| I don't know much about dummy loads, but I think that 100ft is just a
| tad bit too far, no?

There is the guy who got a Worked all Continents using only a light
bulb as his antenna. (And basically it's just a dummy load, though
the resistance varies and so it doesn't make a very good dummy load,
though it shouldn't make a better antenna than a good dummy load. Was
that sentence long enough?)

The leakage of your rig and the feed lines is signifigant. And of
course, the dummy load itself will radiate a little bit too. You may
have a hard time getting a WAC, but certainly the signal is there and
can be picked up by those close. It's also why it's a good idea to ID
yourself and such even when transmitting into a dummy load.


If I might insert my comments. I whole heartedly agree with the other
responses. A dummy load will radiate and using light bulbs as a dummy
load will work.

However, they will radiate emf as well as light. One of my mother's
cousins, Arnold W2OVP SK, received his first ham license on something
like 8DEC1941, if you are a student of history you know what happened
next. Radio Silence until after August 1945. Anyway one night he was
practicing his CW into a bank of light bulbs at his home in Buffalo, NY.
He received a phone call from one of his friends on the other side of
town that his code sounded good. Suffice it to say that he shutdown and
did not do that again. So yes a dummy load will radiate, just not very
efficiently.

Dave WD9BDZ