Kim W5TIT wrote:

You can name it (or not) anything you like. I have an Alpha-Delta DXCC and
it can be used as a 1/4 (or "shortened as they say) wave dipole on 80M. It
works great and was the antenna I used at this time of year when MARS freqs
are beginning to get real noisy. Go to a longwire, go to the sloper, go to
the A-99 and the noise floor was just enough to make everyone noncopyable.

Kim, I went to the web pages of Alpha-delta. On 80 meters the antenna
uses something they call an ISO-RES coil. This is an inductor that they
use to as they put it, "approximate" a half wave dipole. While this goes
up in a shorter space, it is nothing more than a dipole version of the
coil at the bottom of a mobile antenna, and used for the same reason.

They write:

The DX-CC utilizes the exclusive ALPHA DELTA ISO-RES coil principle for
shortening and multibanding an antenna. The ISO-RES is not a trap, due
to the fact that there isn’t a trap capacitor being used. Thus, the
DX-CC is a much lower "Q" antenna than one that would be constructed
using true traps! This allows the DX-CC to be broader in bandwidth than
is possible with a trap-type antenna of equal size. The lower "Q" also
allows the user to employ a moderate range antenna tuner (matchbox) for
achieving resonance and min. SWR anywhere within the covered frequency
bands.

But it's just a coil. The antenna should work okay. Nothing special, but
you could work the world if you were patient.


Go to the AD and everything cleared up. No one ever had a bad thing to say
about signal, so I go by the non-reports.



The point, in this debate--once again--is that there are people saying
there's no such thing, it'd never work, etc., etc. There are people here
saying not only that there is such a thing but that there are websites with
technical discussions on the 1/4 wave dipole (for all kinds of bands) and
there are people here using them and telling the results. But, the ones who
are using them and have results with them, and who have provided the
websites with technical discussions are getting told--once again--that they
are dumbed down.

I read them too Kim. what they say is that they use coils to load these
antennas. that they take up a quarter wave of space is irrelevant. When
there is a loading coil, call it ISO-RES or a "spiral coil" it is part
of the antenna, and adds it's length to the equation.


Sayin' it don't make it so.

You're right. Saying a half wave antenna stuffed into a quarter wave
space with coils does not make it a quarter wave antenna.


And, since that is the mentality that often
develops with any kind of attempt at anything remotely "real" ham radio,

Wrong battle, Kim! I know you don't like Dick or Dan or some of the
others in this discussion. But they are *not* wrong on this one. As I
pointed out in my quick antenna design I did yesterday, a dipole antenna
of a quarter wavelength long would have almost infinite SWR, a high
takeoff angle, and just wouldn't work very well. This is not a
personality issue.


then that is why we "dumbed down" hams don't even regard this
newsgroup as a place to try such conversation.

And I would be willing to bet that if approached nicely, lots of these
guys and gals would be happy to share their knowledge. It always worked
for me.

I'm a "dumbed down" Ham. I didn't get my license until 1999, and didn't
learn morse Code until after they reduced the requirement to 5 wpm. And
I've managed. Oh, there have been a very few that have been less than
cordial at the start. But I'm such a nice guy that they all come around
after a while and just think I'm great! (HAR)

- Mike KB3EIA -