donutbandit wrote:

Al Arduengo wrote in
:

It took me the better part of a day to gather the supplies and construct
it so I hesitate to let the project go until I hear from experienced
users that it is not worth it. I welcome any suggestions or critique.

It's not worth it. Lousy antenna. I have one out on my patio waiting for me
to reclaim the wire off it. A 20 foot longwire out performs it.



Basically, I agree with donutbandit. The attractive things about a
broomstick are compactness and relative portability. But I've use both
broomstick and longwire extensively, and the longwire will beat the
'stick almost every time (though IMHO, a good broomstick and a *20* foot
longwire will not differ much in performance). But if you can string
50' or more of wire for a longwire, it will usually beat the broomstick
every time.

If you like to take a good, small portable on vacation, and want
noticeably better performance than the whip, a broomstick can be the
perect solution, though.

Tony


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Tony Meloche wrote:

donutbandit wrote:

Al Arduengo wrote in
:

It took me the better part of a day to gather the supplies and construct
it so I hesitate to let the project go until I hear from experienced
users that it is not worth it. I welcome any suggestions or critique.

It's not worth it. Lousy antenna. I have one out on my patio waiting for me
to reclaim the wire off it. A 20 foot longwire out performs it.

Basically, I agree with donutbandit. The attractive things about a
broomstick are compactness and relative portability. But I've use both
broomstick and longwire extensively, and the longwire will beat the
'stick almost every time (though IMHO, a good broomstick and a *20* foot
longwire will not differ much in performance). But if you can string
50' or more of wire for a longwire, it will usually beat the broomstick
every time.

If you like to take a good, small portable on vacation, and want
noticeably better performance than the whip, a broomstick can be the
perect solution, though.

Tony


If you don't need something that'll stand up on it's own a slinky is more compact for travel, and if you have room, odds are you can make it longer than a broom stick you'd want to carry along.

I use a 3 meter folding military whip antenna when I want something I can plunk down and use without needing to figure out supports. It breaks down to something about 20" long that's about 2" wide.

= = = donutbandit wrote in message
= = = ...
Al Arduengo wrote in
:

It took me the better part of a day to gather the supplies and construct
it so I hesitate to let the project go until I hear from experienced
users that it is not worth it. I welcome any suggestions or critique.

It's not worth it. Lousy antenna. I have one out on my patio waiting for me
to reclaim the wire off it. A 20 foot longwire out performs it.


DnB,

That's why they sell those small 23 Foot Roll-Up Antennas that
can Clip to the WHip Antennas of most AM/FM/SW Radios.

What Works... WORKS !


iane ~ RHF

..

If you like to take a good, small portable on vacation, and want
noticeably better performance than the whip, a broomstick can be the
perect solution, though.

Tony

BUT, even better, is just stringing up 30 - 60 feet of wire & hooking it up to
the whip..

Dan

Diverd4777 wrote:


If you like to take a good, small portable on vacation, and want
noticeably better performance than the whip, a broomstick can be the
perect solution, though.

Tony

BUT, even better, is just stringing up 30 - 60 feet of wire & hooking it up to
the whip..

Dan



It is better if you're in a cabin in the woods.


It's not better if you're in a hotel room, though.

Tony


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Tony Meloche wrote:


Diverd4777 wrote:
snip


BUT, even better, is just stringing up 30 - 60 feet of wire & hooking it up to
the whip..

Dan


It is better if you're in a cabin in the woods.


It's not better if you're in a hotel room, though.

Tony


For hotel rooms, loops are pretty good. Most will fit in a suitcase,
and they're less likely to pick up RFI than a broomstick or whip.

I suppose if you expected to use it often, you could make one in the lid
of your suitcase or attaché case - though these might be a little more
interesting than you'd like at airports.

"Mark S. Holden" wrote:

Tony Meloche wrote:


Diverd4777 wrote:
snip


BUT, even better, is just stringing up 30 - 60 feet of wire & hooking it up to
the whip..

Dan


It is better if you're in a cabin in the woods.


It's not better if you're in a hotel room, though.

Tony


For hotel rooms, loops are pretty good. Most will fit in a suitcase,
and they're less likely to pick up RFI than a broomstick or whip.

I suppose if you expected to use it often, you could make one in the lid
of your suitcase or attaché case - though these might be a little more
interesting than you'd like at airports.



Delightful observation on both points! It *could* make for a very
intersting (and possibly quite effective) antenna,and it *could* make
for a world of grief in airports! Shazam!

Tony


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Tony Meloche wrote:


"Mark S. Holden" wrote:

Tony Meloche wrote:


Diverd4777 wrote:
snip

BUT, even better, is just stringing up 30 - 60 feet of wire & hooking it up to
the whip..

Dan


It is better if you're in a cabin in the woods.


It's not better if you're in a hotel room, though.

Tony


For hotel rooms, loops are pretty good. Most will fit in a suitcase,
and they're less likely to pick up RFI than a broomstick or whip.

I suppose if you expected to use it often, you could make one in the lid
of your suitcase or attaché case - though these might be a little more
interesting than you'd like at airports.




Delightful observation on both points! It *could* make for a very
intersting (and possibly quite effective) antenna,and it *could* make
for a world of grief in airports! Shazam!

Tony


I have experience with interesting equipment at airports- my 7030+ is
set up as an "ultimate portable", and the X ray machine shows a cabinet
within a cabinet, and a passle of battery packs and related circuitry
jammed inside the larger cabinet.

Whatever antenna I'm bringing goes in the suitcase, but I keep a short
antenna with the radio so I can demo it for them.

It is better if you're in a cabin in the woods.


It's not better if you're in a hotel room, though.

Tony


Ah!

quite true..

In hotel rooms,( or the hotel rooms I've been in )

I've found wrapping wire in a spiral round a 1 liter plastic bottle & setting
it on the windowsill, then leading the signal over to the radio helps;

- When venturing into airports, remember that your luggage will be searched
* thoroughly *,
and the batteries taken out of All electronic devices..
So anything in Memory Goes away

Since this, I just write 'em down or travel with a copy of M.T.

Dan

You just made yourself the equivalent of a Hamstick. There's some
frequency out there at which it's going to work like gangbusters! At
that frequency it should outperform your other antennas. But as you get
away from that frequency, whatever it is, it will be worse than a
straight wire antenna.

/Carl

Al Arduengo wrote:

I just completed an atempt at construction of the "broomstick" antenna
the plans for which were found on the internet. I used a 84" x 1.5"
pole, a 14" aluminum pie pan, approximately 100" of 14/2 solid household
wire. I followed the instructions as closely as possible in the
construction. To my dismay the contraption provided absolutely *no*
increase in signal strength that I could discern. Before I call this a
flop I wanted to ask a few questions of the group:

1. Has anyone else built one and found it to work?
2. Does it really matter if the wire turns are actually touching each
other or can the be spread by up to 0.5"?
3. As much as I hate to show my lack of antenna theory knowledge, does
the type of wire covering matter? The instructions said to use 16 PVC
covered wire but I could not find this description on the available wire
at my Home Depot.
4. I made contact with the wore to the aluminum disk by stripping 1" of
the end and wrapping it round a nail between the pan and the end of the
stick such that when the nail was driven in it pressed the disk against
the bare conductor. Is this valid?
5. Does it actually matter if the feed line is connected to the whip or
the external antenna jack of the receiver?
6. How much wire should I use ideally? As much as I can fit on the
pole? Enough for a quarter wave at 5MHz?
7. I have to assume that the benefit of this sort of antenna must be
only nominal since if it worked as well as a stright wire, it would be
more widely used. How much of an increase in received signal strength
should I expect?

It took me the better part of a day to gather the supplies and construct
it so I hesitate to let the project go until I hear from experienced
users that it is not worth it. I welcome any suggestions or critique.

Best,
-Al A.