It seems awfully quiet here lately...
Has every one moved to another location or could it be everyone but me
has all their questions answered?

John Ferrell W8CCW

On Dec 7, 12:34*pm, John Ferrell wrote:
It seems awfully quiet here lately...
Has every one moved to another location or could it be everyone but me
has all their questions answered?

John Ferrell W8CCW

John, the weather is just now getting to where we can begin working on
antennas. 4" snow on the ground and rain predicted. Perhaps tomorrow I
can start working on tightening up the four corners of my 160 meter
horizontal loop. Or finish tuning the 5BTV out in the pasture.

Have been thinking about a Beverage. Have mile or more of tiny
shielded wire I got at Boeing Surplus years ago. It's about 1/16 inch
diameter. Silver plated copper. Used in aircraft, somewhere. Figured I
would tie inner conductor to shield. Use 1" pvc pipe about eight feet
long for supports. Drive rebar into the ground as far as possible
(18") and stick the PVC over it. Put the wire in a slot at the top. I
can run the wire SW almost 600' before I hit the edge of the property.
Then a 2 watt carbon resistor to ground. Need a transformer at the
house end to match to coax.

Also need to get started on cleaning up and painting the tower.
Haven't had time to get it up. Mayby have to wait for another 5 years!

There, is that enough about antennas?

73, Paul KD7HB

On Dec 7, 2:34*pm, John Ferrell wrote:
It seems awfully quiet here lately...
Has every one moved to another location or could it be everyone but me
has all their questions answered?

John Ferrell W8CCW

Prior Art has made us all obsolete. :/

John Ferrell wrote in
:

It seems awfully quiet here lately...
Has every one moved to another location or could it be everyone but me
has all their questions answered?

John Ferrell W8CCW

Not the time of year to be working on antennas.
Also, we had a spike in traffic during the DTV
transition. It's all kinda tapered off.

On Tue, 7 Dec 2010 12:52:17 -0800 (PST), KD7HB
wrote:

On Dec 7, 12:34*pm, John Ferrell wrote:
It seems awfully quiet here lately...
Has every one moved to another location or could it be everyone but me
has all their questions answered?

John Ferrell W8CCW

John, the weather is just now getting to where we can begin working on
antennas. 4" snow on the ground and rain predicted. Perhaps tomorrow I
can start working on tightening up the four corners of my 160 meter
horizontal loop. Or finish tuning the 5BTV out in the pasture.

Have been thinking about a Beverage. Have mile or more of tiny
shielded wire I got at Boeing Surplus years ago. It's about 1/16 inch
diameter. Silver plated copper. Used in aircraft, somewhere. Figured I
would tie inner conductor to shield. Use 1" pvc pipe about eight feet
long for supports. Drive rebar into the ground as far as possible
(18") and stick the PVC over it. Put the wire in a slot at the top. I
can run the wire SW almost 600' before I hit the edge of the property.
Then a 2 watt carbon resistor to ground. Need a transformer at the
house end to match to coax.

Also need to get started on cleaning up and painting the tower.
Haven't had time to get it up. Mayby have to wait for another 5 years!

There, is that enough about antennas?

73, Paul KD7HB

Great post! I am always interested in the projects of others...and the
results, good or bad. I quit thinking about a Beverage due to
unwelcome horse traffic. For some reason when people get a horse they
think that it comes with a license to treat their neighbors property
as open range! I don't mind the traffic, it is the risk of the horse
getting tangled and injured in my ever changing antenna projects. And
then there is the matter of the ever present Road Apples that my dog
finds so attractive...

There is never "enough" information and experience reports on antenna
experimenting!

An Interesting incident this past week:
A few days ago I was chatting with a friend on the telephone and
tuning through the 20m PSK-31 when I heard a 3 land call with a CQ.
Since most PSK contacts are a matter of a few keystrokes I answered
him. I needed to verify the SGC-237 tuner was working properly on the
30 foot vertical anyway. From that point I just had to share the QSO
with my buddy Bill on the telephone. It turned out that the contact
was Maritime Mobile off the coast of Angola Africa where he is the
Captain of a sea-going tug (220 Feet!) that re supplies oil drilling
platforms!

I keep hearing that it takes a beam antenna way up in the air and
lots of power to work DX. I was running 30 watts PSK into an end fed
half wave vertical that is a ground level.

I keep hearing that the problem with verticals is that they radiate
equally poorly in all directions...

Those Hams that complain that they cannot work HF because of antenna
restrictions could do the same with a flag pole antenna.

John Ferrell W8CCW

John Ferrell wrote:

An Interesting incident this past week:
A few days ago I was chatting with a friend on the telephone and
tuning through the 20m PSK-31 when I heard a 3 land call with a CQ.
Since most PSK contacts are a matter of a few keystrokes I answered
him. I needed to verify the SGC-237 tuner was working properly on the
30 foot vertical anyway. From that point I just had to share the QSO
with my buddy Bill on the telephone. It turned out that the contact
was Maritime Mobile off the coast of Angola Africa where he is the
Captain of a sea-going tug (220 Feet!) that re supplies oil drilling
platforms!

I keep hearing that it takes a beam antenna way up in the air and
lots of power to work DX. I was running 30 watts PSK into an end fed
half wave vertical that is a ground level.

I keep hearing that the problem with verticals is that they radiate
equally poorly in all directions...

Those Hams that complain that they cannot work HF because of antenna
restrictions could do the same with a flag pole antenna.

John Ferrell W8CCW

This is one of the appeals of PSK31..

You don't need much radiated power to work the world. The bandwidth
really is 31 Hz, after all.

In John Ferrell
wrote:

I keep hearing that it takes a beam antenna way up in the air and
lots of power to work DX. I was running 30 watts PSK into an end fed
half wave vertical that is a ground level.

I've got 236 worked and 223 confirmed, running 100 watts into a
vertical.

I keep hearing that the problem with verticals is that they radiate
equally poorly in all directions...

Well, that's true.

--
Bert Hyman W0RSB St. Paul, MN

"John Ferrell" wrote in message
...
It seems awfully quiet here lately...
Has every one moved to another location or could it be everyone but me
has all their questions answered?

John Ferrell W8CCW
-
It does seem to be a little quiet. Anybody want to discuss fractals, as in
the GFW (Great Fractal Wars TM) of a few years ago? That was definitely not
a quiet time
Wayne
W5GIE

On 08 Dec 2010 19:14:16 GMT, Bert Hyman wrote:

In John Ferrell
wrote:

I keep hearing that it takes a beam antenna way up in the air and
lots of power to work DX. I was running 30 watts PSK into an end fed
half wave vertical that is a ground level.

I've got 236 worked and 223 confirmed, running 100 watts into a
vertical.

I keep hearing that the problem with verticals is that they radiate
equally poorly in all directions...

Well, that's true.
Also a truth:
They radiate equally well in all compass points!
John Ferrell W8CCW

On Wed, 8 Dec 2010 13:56:18 -0800, "Wayne"
wrote:


"John Ferrell" wrote in message
.. .
It seems awfully quiet here lately...
Has every one moved to another location or could it be everyone but me
has all their questions answered?

John Ferrell W8CCW
-
It does seem to be a little quiet. Anybody want to discuss fractals, as in
the GFW (Great Fractal Wars TM) of a few years ago? That was definitely not
a quiet time
Wayne
W5GIE

I lost interest in that subject pretty quick the last time around. It
seemed to quickly degenerate into what my Dad referred to as a "Peeing
Contest" which he further explained as a vicious argument short on
facts, long on anger and unlikely to have a conclusion or any
redeeming value.

My current view of the subject "Antennas" is that their are two
relevant components. The first is antenna geometry, the second is
matching it to the load.

Geometry determines the gain and the patterns across the spectrum.
Matching relates to minimizing losses.

I reserve the option of changing my mind but at least for the moment I
consider these as Axioms, that is: accepted principles.

Next I deduce that a "Perfect Antenna" is one that meets or exceeds
one's current needs.

It then follows that the "Best Antenna" is best one that can be
implemented within the projects available resources.

Anyone care to debate further?

John Ferrell W8CCW