Frank Dresser wrote:

"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...
Hello All!

I live in San Diego and have been a PBS supporter for many years. An
article in this months "On Air" PBS magazine has made my day! The
article is on page #3. It is written by the General Manager of the tv
station. I have not read the document in question, but it does sound
too
good to be true. How curious are you? If you live in San Diego, you
might find a copy in your local library.


[snip]

Why do you want to live in a neighborhood in which all the homes have a
dress code? I suppose renters are stuck with such restrictions, but
what do "owners" "own" if they can get hassled for stringing a wire?

Frank Dresser


The thought occurs to me that in the "good old days" aircraft used to
have wire antennas, either strung around the airframe or trailing below
and behind.

Modern, high speed, aircraft can't do this so they have various
solutions including HF probes and conformal antennas (I have seen
unpainted panels on some large military aircraft which were identified
as HF antennas) and it is not difficult to receive their signals over
distances of several thousand miles. I wonder why no one has, at least
as far as I am aware, attempted to adapt these solutions to Ham Radio?

I have personal experience, some 40 years ago, with an HF antenna which
consisted of the top half of the tail (about a 15 to 20 foot square
metal surface) which was tuned by a remote ATU (Collins CU-351 ISTR) and
performed at least as well as a fixed wire over the range of 2.5 to 30
MHz. I had considered at one time covering one end of the house with
foil and trying the idea against ground, but for some reason I
encountered some opposition from another member of my household. I think
she figured 15 antennas was enough!


Dave
VE3HLU

Dave Holford article ...

^ I have personal experience, some 40 years ago, with an
^ HF antenna which consisted of the top half of the tail
^ (about a 15 to 20 foot square metal surface) which was
^ tuned by a remote ATU (Collins CU-351 ISTR) and performed
^ at least as well as a fixed wire over the range of 2.5 to
^ 30 MHz.

If I could put an antenna like that 20,000 feet over my house I would be very
happy indeed!

Frank

Frank wrote:

Dave Holford article ...

^ I have personal experience, some 40 years ago, with an
^ HF antenna which consisted of the top half of the tail
^ (about a 15 to 20 foot square metal surface) which was
^ tuned by a remote ATU (Collins CU-351 ISTR) and performed
^ at least as well as a fixed wire over the range of 2.5 to
^ 30 MHz.

If I could put an antenna like that 20,000 feet over my house I would be very
happy indeed!

Frank


Worked very nicely between 50 and 100 feet, and very seldom were we
above 5,000. I am aware of it being used to communicate from Australia
to the East Coast of Canada while on the ground, and I have personally
used it to communicate to North America from Europe while on the ground
- never ran over 400 Watts.

Dave

Frank it's called a "sky hook".

Frank wrote:

Dave Holford article ...

^ I have personal experience, some 40 years ago, with an
^ HF antenna which consisted of the top half of the tail
^ (about a 15 to 20 foot square metal surface) which was
^ tuned by a remote ATU (Collins CU-351 ISTR) and performed
^ at least as well as a fixed wire over the range of 2.5 to
^ 30 MHz.

If I could put an antenna like that 20,000 feet over my house I would be very
happy indeed!

Frank

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 16:31:45 -0500, Dave Holford
wrote:



Frank Dresser wrote:

"A.Pismo Clam" wrote in message
...
Hello All!
snip

The thought occurs to me that in the "good old days" aircraft used to
have wire antennas, either strung around the airframe or trailing below
and behind.

Some still do


Modern, high speed, aircraft can't do this so they have various
solutions including HF probes and conformal antennas (I have seen
unpainted panels on some large military aircraft which were identified
as HF antennas) and it is not difficult to receive their signals over
distances of several thousand miles. I wonder why no one has, at least
as far as I am aware, attempted to adapt these solutions to Ham Radio?

The aircraft has a height above Terrain (HAT) advantage that few homes
are ever going to obtain. :-))


I have personal experience, some 40 years ago, with an HF antenna which
consisted of the top half of the tail (about a 15 to 20 foot square
metal surface) which was tuned by a remote ATU (Collins CU-351 ISTR) and
performed at least as well as a fixed wire over the range of 2.5 to 30
MHz. I had considered at one time covering one end of the house with
foil and trying the idea against ground, but for some reason I
encountered some opposition from another member of my household. I think
she figured 15 antennas was enough!

Then there is the problem of electrical wiring on the inside of the
wall too. :-))

The plane I'm building (335 MPH hot rod) is all advanced composite.
The plans call for the antennas to all be inside. Unfortunately the
VOR antenna is supposed to be in the horizontal stabilizer. They
changed the material so the horizontal stab is all carbon fiber.
Wellll...maybe it'd be good for deicing.

You'll have to fix the return add due to dumb virus checkers, not spam
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair?)
www.rogerhalstead.com


Dave
VE3HLU