On 7/31/2011 23:51, Irv Finkleman wrote:
This topic is likely to spur a lot of discussion. For a while two of us
were using zip cord
which in itself is frequently used as speaker wire.

Mine was strung across and somewhat around the back yard to I could work 75m
and up with a tuner.
George, VE6VA surprised me when I noticed he had a feedling going out of his
shack -- it was cloth covered line cord! Both of us had lots of fun on the
bands.
I should add that my transmission line and both halves of the dipole were
made
from one piece of line cord/speaker wire -- I just brought the end of the
transmission
line into a plastic wire-tie, and fed the lines around the yard, using a
couple
tree branches and a small pole on the garage. The other dipole half was
just
long enough to reach the front of the house where it was then suspended
by a small lilac bush and a tall fir tree. End insulators were just bits of
scrap plastic and both ends were suspended with a long string of short
and medium pieces tied together! From experience I think that I can
generalize that you matter how much nylon line a ham buys, in time
it degenerates into a wide assortment of randomly short lengths, none
of which alone can serve any purpose!

After 50 plus years of hamming fun, I have come to the conclusion that
anything with a little metal in it will serve as an antenna if you hook it
up in the right manner. It has truly surprised me over the years just
how little antenna I had, and how far it was getting out.

Some antenna's will work better than others, and eventually every
ham, whose expectations eventually approch infinity will want to try
a 'better antenna'. Aside from collecting materials, and it doesn't
take much to make a dipole, once you know where you can string
your wires, it's easy to try a variety of antennas. In the long run
you will probably find that a half wave dipole will do the best,
and if you can drop the ends, changing it into an inverted-Vee
you will have near omnidirectional operation on the higher bands.

Antennas, discussed here have impedance, Jx+something or other, specific
lengths,
and so many rules that your life as a ham will make you miserable
when you dare approach the shack. Throw an arrow into the
air (throw an antenna into the air), suspend it here and there, and
then see if it works. If it does, Great! -- If it doesn't -- well, try
something else. Chances are you will have so much fun that
you postpone tidying up the knots, but some of those things
stay up for ever until their age approaches that of a typical
old fogie antenna fussy, Smith chart interpreter, know-it-
all hams, like most of us here

Antennas are funny people!

Get the wire up, have a ball!

Irv
VE6BP, Calgary

Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical
minority, and rapidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which
holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece
of poop by the clean end.


"KD2AIP" wrote in message
...
Anyone have experience making a dipole from 18 gauge speaker wire? I
have a whole lot of it lying around the house, and was wondering if I
could put it to some good use.




Because it disrupts the normal flow of the conversation.







Why is top posting on use net considered discourteous?

--
Tom Horne, W3TDH