Another chapter in my decades long 'quest to find the worlds worst
antenna configuration' (QTFTWWAC)...
This weekend I hurled into the air another conglomeration of consisting
of three pieces of ugly bent, used wire.... After tree branches, bird
droppings, and gravity did its thing I wound up with a bottom fed, half
lambda vertical for 40 meters, with a pair of elevated radials... The
bottom of the antenna is 7 feet up, the 2 radials slope from there to
about 3 feet...
Being that the antenna analyzer had dead batteries (my magic fingers
left it on again), I tuned the matching network by the method I learned
as a lad, putting a brick on the key I went out to the antenna and
using a pencil to draw an arc off the wire I tuned the cap for maximum
sparks... Trudged the hundred yards back to the shack and plopped down
in front of the radio... Quick check showed swr to be 2.8:1 at the
bottom of the band rising to 1:1 above the top of the band... In my
youth before swr meters this would have been a raging success...
Anyway, the swr a bit too much for the amp at 7005 kc so I ran the Omni
barefoot getting about 70 watts out... The band was weakly open into
eurasia... FIrst Q was a UA3, then a UA9, followed by by G, DL, EA,
EI, etc., for a round dozen DX Q's in about 40 minutes...

OK, so this antenna is another dismal failure in my QTFTWWAC, don't use
this antenna configuration if you want to be able to hold your head up
in polite company... If you do go off into the weeds don't smoke em
and decide to use it, a few more radials will get that last dB, or so,
out of it... Christman finds a round dozen elevated radials to be the
sweet spot between improvement and vanishing returns... Now, that work
was done for quarter lambda verticals which need the ground as the
antenna image, so it may not translate directly to a half lambda
vertical which is a balanced monopole... Here the radials mostly keep
the coax from getting too friendly with the antenna, and partially
screens the night crawlers from a sunburn...

The intent is to do FS measurements with 2, 4, and 8 elevated radials
to see if this configuration responds differently than a quarter
lambda... Yesterday I went out in the meadow with the 706 and a battery
in a garden cart... I tuned the parallel network for 1:1 at 7050kc...
The antenna covers the whole band at less than 1.5:1 without
retuning... In testing I called a quick CQ and had a w4bkd/m come back
to me... He's an OT like me, but said this was the first time he worked
someone standing out in a field, up on a ladder, with the radio clamped
under his arm, holding the paddles in his hand, in the rain... I
surmised that given my usual mental state that this was pretty much SOP
for me...

Dunno if I will get to the radial tests... This week end it has to come
down so the highly secret 80 meter arrays complete with decoder ring
in the box for CQWW can go up, as I continue on the trail to the holy
grail of the QTFTWWAC...

sar, bni, ymmv

denny / k8do

On 5 Oct 2006 04:38:12 -0700, "Denny" wrote:

Another chapter in my decades long 'quest to find the worlds worst
antenna configuration' (QTFTWWAC)...
This weekend I hurled into the air another conglomeration of consisting
of three pieces of ugly bent, used wire.... After tree branches, bird
droppings, and gravity did its thing I wound up with a bottom fed, half
lambda vertical for 40 meters, with a pair of elevated radials... The
bottom of the antenna is 7 feet up, the 2 radials slope from there to
about 3 feet...
Being that the antenna analyzer had dead batteries (my magic fingers
left it on again), I tuned the matching network by the method I learned
as a lad, putting a brick on the key I went out to the antenna and
using a pencil to draw an arc off the wire I tuned the cap for maximum
sparks... Trudged the hundred yards back to the shack and plopped down
in front of the radio... Quick check showed swr to be 2.8:1 at the
bottom of the band rising to 1:1 above the top of the band... In my
youth before swr meters this would have been a raging success...
Anyway, the swr a bit too much for the amp at 7005 kc so I ran the Omni
barefoot getting about 70 watts out... The band was weakly open into
eurasia... FIrst Q was a UA3, then a UA9, followed by by G, DL, EA,
EI, etc., for a round dozen DX Q's in about 40 minutes...

OK, so this antenna is another dismal failure in my QTFTWWAC, don't use
this antenna configuration if you want to be able to hold your head up
in polite company... If you do go off into the weeds don't smoke em
and decide to use it, a few more radials will get that last dB, or so,
out of it... Christman finds a round dozen elevated radials to be the
sweet spot between improvement and vanishing returns... Now, that work
was done for quarter lambda verticals which need the ground as the
antenna image, so it may not translate directly to a half lambda
vertical which is a balanced monopole... Here the radials mostly keep
the coax from getting too friendly with the antenna, and partially
screens the night crawlers from a sunburn...

The intent is to do FS measurements with 2, 4, and 8 elevated radials
to see if this configuration responds differently than a quarter
lambda... Yesterday I went out in the meadow with the 706 and a battery
in a garden cart... I tuned the parallel network for 1:1 at 7050kc...
The antenna covers the whole band at less than 1.5:1 without
retuning... In testing I called a quick CQ and had a w4bkd/m come back
to me... He's an OT like me, but said this was the first time he worked
someone standing out in a field, up on a ladder, with the radio clamped
under his arm, holding the paddles in his hand, in the rain... I
surmised that given my usual mental state that this was pretty much SOP
for me...

Dunno if I will get to the radial tests... This week end it has to come
down so the highly secret 80 meter arrays complete with decoder ring
in the box for CQWW can go up, as I continue on the trail to the holy
grail of the QTFTWWAC...

sar, bni, ymmv

denny / k8do

Denny, I don't know what you do for a living, but you could make millions as a
standup comedian, unless you're having someone else write your material.

Deterrming SWR by measuring the length of the spark at the end of the dipole is
hilarious. On the other hand, I don't believe you'd have enough energy left at
the end of a hundred yards of feedline to even develop a spark there.

But that's neither here or there--let's get down to specifics--why are you
ignoring me? We're so close together in Michigan that we could QSO with smoke
signals, as I pointed out in one of my posts on the thread concerning the G5RV.
And did you not receive an email from me? I know my attempt at humor doesn't
begin to compare with yours, but I thought at least we could become acquainted,
so why are you ignoring me?

Walt, W2DU

sar, bni, ymmv

denny / k8do

Denny, I don't know what you do for a living, but you could make millions as a
standup comedian, unless you're having someone else write your material.

Deterrming SWR by measuring the length of the spark at the end of the dipole is
hilarious. On the other hand, I don't believe you'd have enough energy left at
the end of a hundred yards of feedline to even develop a spark there.

But that's neither here or there--let's get down to specifics--why are you
ignoring me? We're so close together in Michigan that we could QSO with smoke
signals, as I pointed out in one of my posts on the thread concerning the G5RV.
And did you not receive an email from me? I know my attempt at humor doesn't
begin to compare with yours, but I thought at least we could become acquainted,
so why are you ignoring me?

Walt, W2DU

Denny, I just now received an email saying my email to you is undeliverable. Is
the email address you use here a fake?

Walt, W2DU

Absolutely not ignoring you Walt... Your name is certainly known to
me... Shucks I have been reading my pablum stained copy of
'reflections' for years... I have to say it is tough sledding when one
reads by sliding his finger along the print whilst making lip
movements... Could you have used shorter words, say less than one
syllable, for folks like me - especially the preface?

Now, on the pencil tuner - scouts honor on the facts I posted - if you
think the end of a half wave antenna won't bite, try it! From the
color of the burns on my finger I would say that it was at least 1834z
+/- j1571...

I did not see an email from you in the inbox... Nope not spoofing my
email, but it may be an outdated one... Current Email address is:



Give me a buzz... I just dropped a note to Arch Doty on the
counterpoise topic...
I'm leaving the office now 5:10 pm... Won't see any replies until
tomorrow am... Going home to cruise the bottom of 40 meters...

cheers ... denny / k8do



Walter Maxwell wrote:

And did you not receive an email from me? I know my attempt at humor doesn't
begin to compare with yours, but I thought at least we could become acquainted,
so why are you ignoring me?

Walt, W2DU

Ahhhhaaaa, I see the software at the server truncated my email
address... I shall try again..

a d 4 h k 2 0 0 4 @ y a h o o . c o m

You can also in a pinch dial 989-284-4122... IF I am not handy to the
fone at that moment it will record your number so I can call back...

Or drop me a fax at 989-642-8429

BTW, the email address is the callsign of my departed mother, who at
age 72 embarked upon getting a ham license... In just under two years
she went from zero to extra, complete with a 20 wpm exam in front of
the FCC in Tampa... Be aware that her educational background was a
school marm teaching learning disabled kids... She is why I have zero
sympathy for those who whine that the ham ticket has too many barriers
and should be reduced...

On 5 Oct 2006 14:11:35 -0700, "Denny" wrote:

Absolutely not ignoring you Walt... Your name is certainly known to
me... Shucks I have been reading my pablum stained copy of
'reflections' for years... I have to say it is tough sledding when one
reads by sliding his finger along the print whilst making lip
movements... Could you have used shorter words, say less than one
syllable, for folks like me - especially the preface?

I guess you got the pablum stains on the pages while sliding your finger along
the print, eh? That's probably why you need words of less than one syllable. I
heard from our mutual friend Mac N8TT that you're a doctor. A D.O. probably?
(Why else with that call sign?) Then of course you graduated from words of less
than one syllable to writing less than decipherable prescriptions. Right?

Now, on the pencil tuner - scouts honor on the facts I posted - if you
think the end of a half wave antenna won't bite, try it! From the
color of the burns on my finger I would say that it was at least 1834z
+/- j1571...

Oh, I believe you when you say the end of an antenna bites. I've often drawn
4-inch arcs with a pencil from the end of a 20-m dipole with 500 w input. The
only problem I have with your arcs is that when you stretch a normal-length
feedline out to a hundred yards, the diameter of the conductor becomes so small
that it takes a megger to measure its resistance. How are you gonna get enough
current through it to see a spark at the end of the dipole?

I did not see an email from you in the inbox... Nope not spoofing my
email, but it may be an outdated one... Current Email address is:



The address I used was . It came back undeliverable--with
that address it figgers.

My main reason for answering your posts is to say that my signal gets out pretty
well on this band--R9 sig in Australia, yet no skip over Hemlock from nearby Mt.
Pleasant. You and Mac are the only Michigan contacts I've made on this band.
Pretty neat propagation, eh? Did you know the airline distance between us is
only 26 miles?

I'm originally from Mt. P, but left in 1940, then back in 1946 after WW2.
Retired to Florida, but became a snowbird when I remet and married my
high-school sweetheart in 1996. She is an emeriti professor at CMU, so we live
in her house in Mt. P. in summer, and in mine in DeLand, FL during the winter.
We're leaving for FL Oct 30, so we won't have time to meet before then, but we
should next summer.

Walt

BTW, the email address is the callsign of my departed mother, who at
age 72 embarked upon getting a ham license... In just under two years
she went from zero to extra, complete with a 20 wpm exam in front of
the FCC in Tampa... Be aware that her educational background was a
school marm teaching learning disabled kids... She is why I have zero
sympathy for those who whine that the ham ticket has too many barriers
and should be reduced...

Hi Denny,

What a wonderful Mother you had! And you're right abou the whiners.

My Dad built radios in the 1920s while I watched begining at age 3. Got my
license W8KHK at 14 in 1933, but my Dad didn't regain his interest until 1945,
when he became W8YNG. He was net control of the Michigan Emergency Net from 1953
to 1957, prior to his death in 2958. My three sons and I converged in Dayton
this year. You can see a pic of us in front of the Hara Arena on my web page at
www.w2du.com, Click on 'About the Author' and scroll down to the bottom of the
page. There you'll see Bill, W2WM, Rick, W8KHK (my original call), and John,
K4JRM.

As I said earlier, we'll have to arrange to meet next summer, that is, if the
gas prices are reasonable. Do you get to FL in the winter? If you do, let us
know ahead of time so you can stop in. DeLand is just 18 miles west of Daytona
Beach, and 35 miles north of Orlando, on Interstate 4.

Nice to meet ya, Denny,

Walt