JD,

"It's a relatively efficient antenna at resonance (which for a
"standard" slinky is around 7 MHz)"

So what would you think the relative 'resonant frequency' of the small
diameter and shorter Slinky Jr. be ? ? ?


~ RHF
..
..
= = = "John Doty"
= = = wrote in message ...
In article bU6"the captain"
@bgtnsc0 4-news.ops.worldnet.att.net,
"the captain" wrote:

would a slinky make a good travel antenna ? take it to the park or
camping and stretch it out? seems like it would be quick to put away and

Well, what I use is a dipole made with a pair of 3 meter lengths of wire
connected to a plug. The wires have alligator clips at the ends, mostly
just as a handy way to string them up, but I also sometimes clip them to
available metal objects. It's not hard to coil up.

The Slinky is fun, but calculations of its performance relative to a
straight wire are discouraging. Below resonance it's just a hunk of wire,
only slightly better than a straight wire of similar length. It's a
relatively efficient antenna at resonance (which for a "standard" slinky
is around 7 MHz), but above resonance it is less efficient than a straight
wire of the same length. For HF reception, efficiency generally matters
most at the higher frequencies where the Slinky's efficiency is in
decline.