On Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:40:41 -0400, Steve Stone
wrote:

A friend gave me an unknown (to me) HF antenna.
Only marking on the 5 foot long white plastic pipe case is "Smithe
Antennas, Laurel, MD"
Inside the pipe are about 6 pieces of aluminum tubing , some 1/2 inch
white plastic pipe, one elbow, a plastic pipe T
with a small length of coax attached to a pair of "clips", and a set of
coils stuck in Styrofoam.

No paperwork.
Anyone familiar with this one?

Steve
N2UBP


I live near Laurel (12 miles) and used to live in Laurel and I have no
recollection of this. A check of the local phone book reveals
no such entity,

There are a couple of references on the internet to a "Smithe Windom"
which K3MT says he devised. K3MT is now resident in Grear Falls, VA
which like Laurel, MD is in the greater Washington, DC metro area. You
might wish to contact him and do a google on him.

There is a lot of contractor electronics going on in Laurel, MD area
as nearby are located NASA Godard Space Flight Center, Johns
Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, a whole lot of industry connected to the
very nearby National Security Agency, a big ex-Westinghouse radar
manufacturer (don't recall who owns it now, but radar research has
been going on for decades at the facility and even the Patuxent
Research Center which is a big facility for tracking wildlife
migrations among many other things. They also raise whooping crane
chicks and other exotic wild and endangered birds and use electronic
tracking techniques.

So whether this is a big time outfit, or something made in someones
garage, there is plenty of potential for something like that antenna
to be made in this area.

Jon W3JT