"Spock" wrote in message
u...
Hello Everyone
I saw somewhere that the us navy used on some of it's ships hf discone
antennas. Were they any good? are they practical? what are the pros and
cons? are they used commercially?

Than you.

Yes, They were fine. Worked well, practical, but heavy and took up a lot of
"real estate" topside. Useful over the freq range 10-30 in most cases.
There may be one or two left in the active Navy, but they have mostly been
replaced by twin whips. I think USS Belleau Wood (decommissioned October,
2005) still had the discone/cage combination antenna at that time. The USS
Missouri Memorial has one.

You need a sturdy center mast to support the cone section which is made of
about 25 wires. It's about 25 ft tall. The disk is insulated and sits atop
the mast. The advantage is that it's broadbanded. Good VSWR across the
band. Not much use for hams, since we just have those little slices of the
band. One vertical omni antenna has coverage just like all the other
vertical omnis.

So, you might not want to bother, except for the fun of doing it and seeing
that it works. I agree, that's reason enough for some, but it will be a lot
of effort. ARRL Antenna Book covers it nicely, too, I see.

John, KD6VKW
Combat Systems Tech,
Southwest RMC, San Diego Naval Station