The latest issue of QST came out and in it was a big artical of the
Ringo antenna.

I have been a ham for over 45 years. Got into it about the time FM on 2
meters was starting up. At that time the Ringo antenna came out. Many
thousand were sold. Then it was discovered how bad they really were.
Most of the signal went up instead of out. Maybe good for the
satalites.

Then they were modified and did somewhat better as the Ranger and one
with some extra radials mounted below the antenna by a foot or two that
really took away the advantage of the no radial concept.

I Thought the Ringo had been laid to rest over 30 years ago, but now
that artical makes it look like a good antenna. Around here we referred
to them as a radiating dummy load many years ago. Makes me wonder if
QST has anyone with any technical knowlege working for them any more.

In article t,
Ralph Mowery wrote:

The latest issue of QST came out and in it was a big artical of the
Ringo antenna.

I have been a ham for over 45 years. Got into it about the time FM on 2
meters was starting up. At that time the Ringo antenna came out. Many
thousand were sold. Then it was discovered how bad they really were.
Most of the signal went up instead of out. Maybe good for the
satalites.

Then they were modified and did somewhat better as the Ranger and one
with some extra radials mounted below the antenna by a foot or two that
really took away the advantage of the no radial concept.

I Thought the Ringo had been laid to rest over 30 years ago, but now
that artical makes it look like a good antenna. Around here we referred
to them as a radiating dummy load many years ago. Makes me wonder if
QST has anyone with any technical knowlege working for them any more.

Ralph-

I had a Ringo used on the few local repeaters at the time. I think
there was also a CB, a Ten Meter, a Six Meter and 450 MHz version of it.
It came out at a time when the HF propagation was near a peak, so became
quite popular.

We didn't know any better!

Fred

In article ,
says...

I had a Ringo used on the few local repeaters at the time. I think
there was also a CB, a Ten Meter, a Six Meter and 450 MHz version of it.
It came out at a time when the HF propagation was near a peak, so became
quite popular.

We didn't know any better!




Yes, at the time CC produced all those versions of Ringos. The 10 and 6
meter versions may be ok as they will throw the radiation up for skip.

What got me was the part that says 'antenna that performs as expected'.
May not be an exegration as maybe they did not expect too much out of
it..hihi..

At first look they seemed to be a good idea. No radials and not that
expensive. I think they were around $ 15 for the 2 meter version back
then. Even the sorry 11 element beams by CC were not all that much at
the time. Another case of us not knowing any better. While I am sure
later the CC antennas improved, those 2 versions just soured me on the
company.

I did compair one of the 11 element 220 MHz beams with a homade quagi 8
element from the handbook way back then. The quagi worked very well
compaired the the CC. I could hear about as well on the quagi 6 feet
off the gound as the 11 element up 35 feet. I was near the top of a
hill so I am sure that helped. At the same height the quagi was way
better than the 11 element.


I actually have one of the 220 MHz Ringos up now that is the Ranger
version. Was given to me many years ago and a few years ago I put it up
as a quick antenna to get into 2 of the local repeaters.