Broken antenna still works! How??
 

I have an old Channel Master antenna (looks like the Scantenna,
http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm.)

I have had this antenna for 17 years, it has been an awesome antenna!
Well yesterday we had a big wind storm, 60+ MPH. The bottom half of
the antenna was ripped off. I found it 50' away in the yard. (BTW the
antenna is about 30' in the air).

When I got home last night I fired up my scanner expecting to hear
nothing (very rural area, most of what I listen to is 25+ miles away).

But to my surprise I could not notice any loss of reception! All the
usual stations were there..

Can anyone offer and explantion? How can a dipole antenna still work
so well with the entire bottom half gone?

Thanks

its magic

Fred wrote:

I have an old Channel Master antenna (looks like the Scantenna,
http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm.)


But to my surprise I could not notice any loss of reception! All the
usual stations were there..

Can anyone offer and explantion? How can a dipole antenna still work
so well with the entire bottom half gone?

If you had a really good signal strength meter you would probably notice
that the received signal strength had dropped 3dB. Not normally enough
for the human ear to tell. Particularly across a period of time, with
most power switches being part of the volume control...

Do you have your radios (or antenna mast) grounded?

-Donald
--
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright

In article ,
says...
its magic

NO. It's FM.

Do you have your radios (or antenna mast) grounded?

-Donald

Yes the mast is grounded... I guess I thought with a dipole it would be
worthless without it's bottom half, or at least seriously compromised.

Fred wrote:

Do you have your radios (or antenna mast) grounded?

-Donald

Yes the mast is grounded... I guess I thought with a dipole it would
be worthless without it's bottom half, or at least seriously
compromised.

Nope, you just re-invented the quarter wave whip antenna, with your mast
providing the counterpoise... ;-)

Can't tell from the provided picture, but if the elements on the top and
bottom were different sizes, you may have lost more than 3dB at the
frequency ranges the bottom half was tuned for...

Might be interesting to know how well just your mast does... :-)

-D
--
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright

Nope, you just re-invented the quarter wave whip antenna, with your mast
providing the counterpoise... ;-)

Can't tell from the provided picture, but if the elements on the top and
bottom were different sizes, you may have lost more than 3dB at the
frequency ranges the bottom half was tuned for...

Might be interesting to know how well just your mast does... :-)

-D

The elements are the same top and bottom.. actually the very top 7
feet or so of my mast is a wooden rod with the other 20 or so feet
being a standard metal mast.. interesting..

I could use the broken half as a second antenna!!

Fred

You buy an antenna, radio works good, you lose antenna radio works good,
Confusis says you no need antenna!

"Fred" wrote in message
om...
I have an old Channel Master antenna (looks like the Scantenna,
http://users.cis.net/kingpop/Scanner/Scantenna.htm.)

I have had this antenna for 17 years, it has been an awesome antenna!
Well yesterday we had a big wind storm, 60+ MPH. The bottom half of
the antenna was ripped off. I found it 50' away in the yard. (BTW the
antenna is about 30' in the air).

When I got home last night I fired up my scanner expecting to hear
nothing (very rural area, most of what I listen to is 25+ miles away).

But to my surprise I could not notice any loss of reception! All the
usual stations were there..

Can anyone offer and explantion? How can a dipole antenna still work
so well with the entire bottom half gone?

Thanks

Fred wrote:

I could use the broken half as a second antenna!!


Depending on how you connected it, you might even get your 3 dB back...
:-)

-D
--
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy
enough people to make it worth the effort." -Herm Albright