RadioBanter - View Single Post - My Thoughts on a Slinky Stretched-Out on an Eight Foot Long PVC Pipe

October 30th 05, 03:59 PM

wrote:

.. Myself , I wouldn't use a slinky for any antenna.
It's a substandard material, and a funky design anyway. A short loaded whip or element will be more efficient using a high Q loading coil, than a long helical winding using a slinky.
Also, the current distribution will be better with a center loaded whip, vs a continuous loading coil as an element. A continuous helical whip also needs some capacitive loading at the end, if you want a decent performing antenna. IE: a "stinger", or "hat", etc...
Otherwise, it will be very lame. Might as well use regular wire...It's
as good as anything else... MK

Yodar responds

If it's so funky howcum hams use it on field day? That's how it became
known to hams is from Army usage

If its so substandard material howcum even the ARMY used it in the
field as an expediency antenna? In Florida we have hurricanes and rain
almost daily. The cadmium plating or whatever it is plated with has
shown no corrosion.

Yes, for transmitting you do need a cap or a stinger, but for receive
only a SLINKY works fine. I have dozens of citations of people
successfully using them for SWL.

The SLINKY is a NICHE-market antenna and is a successful product IMO
which is why they appear in various forms on Ebay.

Mine suspended up with a 13' fiberglass telescoping pole outside for
more'en a year with a 9:1 balun works fine and is idiotproof.

Everything you say about the benefits of wire are true for those that
can string it. I cant.

What you say about a center loaded whip being suiperior to a slinky is
true to YOUR application.

But I have used verious Hustlers and find them too narrow banded and
that is because they are designed for transmitting. I dont do that.

I want broad band.

The SLINKY's inherent resonance peaks within the 40M band so it
decreases performance-wise till 18 Mhz where it's dead (usingDX 398 and
RX 320)

For apartment dwellers, It IS an good expediency antenna unless you
choose a active antenna which I am using now.

Yodar