A small FD experience
Locked
 
|
I was still on the road Saturday with my wife on a swing around
Michigan ( upper and lower peninsula's) vacation. So I could not really get involved with any FD. But, Saturday afternoon found us at Oscoda, Michigan, where there was an Arts's n Craft show. Ya, that thrills me. But I have this great arrangement with my wife, who can take as long as she wants. I always bring plenty of reading material, or do that best in show thing called a nap. So I'm parked in this nice lot, with plenty of tree shade. I look up at the trees, and there is some really scary AC wiring going on. No way to throw any wire up there. So I take some 20 feet of 22 gauge wire, and lay it out, ON THE GROUND!. With the help of a few alligator clips, I convinced the K2 internal tuner to load up on 40cw at 10 watts. From the front seat of my car, I worked some 8 stations in 15 minutes! Never more than two calls. 10 watts into 20 feet of wire on the ground! I was tuning around, and just started to laugh at the whole situation when my wife came back. She asked me what was so funny. Kinda hard to explain, but since she was the one who bought the K2 for me as a consolation prize for turning 50, she was very happy to see "that silly look on my face". She told me today I had that look all day. What fun hath Elecraft wrought? 73 de Tom, K8IIE K2-3206 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
Administrator
|
On Jun 27, 2004, at 1:57 PM, Tom Bosscher wrote: > > 10 watts into 20 feet of wire on the ground! ... I double-dare you to model this antenna in EZ-NEC, Tom ;) Congrats on your daring effort. Wayne N6KR > --- http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
In reply to this post by Tom Bosscher
In a message dated 6/28/2004 1:33:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [hidden email] writes:
> I double-dare you to model this antenna in EZ-NEC, > Tom ;) I triple-dog-dare you! ;-) [1] > Congrats on your daring effort. > He who dares, wins. [2] 73 de Jim, N2EY [1] Reference to K2ORS's classic "A Christmas Story" [2] Motto of the Special Air Services _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
|
|
Tests run in 1965 by W0YBF with an underground doublet (it was buried about
2 feet below the surface of the soil but the wire was insulated from the surrounding earth by putting it inside a plastic pipe) showed that it was about 18 dB below an elevated dipole - about 3 "S-Units". Perhaps a wire ON the ground would be a bit better, especially if it was insulated. Still 3 S-units isn't bad for a completely invisible antenna that, by definition, can't blow down in a storm<G>. And it picks up very little local QRN on receive. Many ops looking for a low QRN antenna in a noisy location simply throw a wire on the ground and get far better results than with a resonant wire up in the air. Underground and on-the-ground antennas date waaaaay back. There was on in the RSGB "T & R Bulletin" from February 1927 by C.H. Taggett, G6PG, who used a 60-foot rubber insulated wire buried 2-1/2 feet down. That one was end fed with the "feeder" passing through a length or rubber hose to the pipe-enclosed antenna. G6PG ran 8 watts into the antenna on 150 meters, 90 meters and 45 meters back in the 20's with contacts ranging out to about 1000 miles. Interestingly, in spite of the fact that the antenna was only 60 feet long, he found it to be very directional with most contacts within an angle of 30-degrees from the far end. My references mention underground antenna experiments going back to 1912. Later center-fed versions, such as W0YBF's, center-fed the antenna with a matching network in a plastic garbage can underground with the lid accessible from above so it could be opened for adjustments. I've used an on-the-ground antenna too, and gotten out with it... At least until I went outside to investigate why my ATU settings had changed so much and noted that it had fallen down from its supports<G>. Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of [hidden email] Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 11:20 AM To: [hidden email] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] A small FD experience In a message dated 6/28/2004 1:33:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [hidden email] writes: > I double-dare you to model this antenna in EZ-NEC, > Tom ;)... 73 de Jim, N2EY _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [hidden email] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com |
«
Return to Elecraft
|
1 view|%1 views
| Free forum by Nabble | Edit this page |