The current at the
ends can reach levels to produce serious burns! Grab a mobile antenna below
the loading coil while transmitting. You won't feel a thing! Grab it at or
above the coil, it will burn the hell out of you ( X-numbers of milliamps of
RF current).

Jerry,

It's the high-voltage bits that bite you because your skin resistance
is so high it takes some substantial voltage to drive a noticable
current through you, but it doesn't take much current to give you a
nasty burn. The high-current parts of the antenna don't have enough
voltage to burn you.

Dan

"Jerry" wrote in message
...

"Merlin-7 KI4ILB" wrote in message
. ..
Ok which one would you recommend?

http://www.mouser.com/search/Refine.... f&N=1323038+0

Thanks
joe



I've been able to mail order most any electrical part from Mouser. No
minimum order. And it puts you on the list for their huge catalog.

bob
k5qwg



vertical without having to cut it.

I did exactly this (20 years ago). I used a variable compression
trimmer
capacitor to check that I could actually get a low SWR, measured it,
and
fitted the nearest value disc ceramic (rated at 500VDC). I think it
was
330pF. No problems with 40W.
Ian.


I once saw a 102" whip on a motor home that had literally been wound into
a 4 " dia coil about half way up! It looked like one of those CB "big
coil" trucker antennas except it was all in one piece. I can only surmise
that he heated it and wound it around some sort of form. It shortened the
thing down to less that 5 feet. But, then, wouldn't that take the temper
out of the steel and make it flop over the next time it was hit? There
was also no evidence of heating, either; it looked like it had been formed
at the beginning of its life. Anybody ever see anyone do this before. If
so, how was it done?

73

Jerry
--







Wouldnt be that hard to do, You can retemper the steel if it gets soft and
the discoloring will buff off.
tempering metal takes some specific knowledge and experience. Ive done it to
tools and had some success but I have also made them to brittle and they
break.

Of course it may have been one of those big coil antennas

"Jimmie D" wrote in message
.. .

"Jerry" wrote in message
...

"Merlin-7 KI4ILB" wrote in message
. ..
Ok which one would you recommend?

http://www.mouser.com/search/Refine.... f&N=1323038+0

Thanks
joe



I've been able to mail order most any electrical part from Mouser. No
minimum order. And it puts you on the list for their huge catalog.

bob
k5qwg



vertical without having to cut it.

I did exactly this (20 years ago). I used a variable compression
trimmer
capacitor to check that I could actually get a low SWR, measured it,
and
fitted the nearest value disc ceramic (rated at 500VDC). I think it
was
330pF. No problems with 40W.
Ian.


I once saw a 102" whip on a motor home that had literally been wound into
a 4 " dia coil about half way up! It looked like one of those CB "big
coil" trucker antennas except it was all in one piece. I can only
surmise that he heated it and wound it around some sort of form. It
shortened the thing down to less that 5 feet. But, then, wouldn't that
take the temper out of the steel and make it flop over the next time it
was hit? There was also no evidence of heating, either; it looked like
it had been formed at the beginning of its life. Anybody ever see anyone
do this before. If so, how was it done?

73

Jerry
--







Wouldnt be that hard to do, You can retemper the steel if it gets soft and
the discoloring will buff off.
tempering metal takes some specific knowledge and experience. Ive done it
to tools and had some success but I have also made them to brittle and
they break.

Of course it may have been one of those big coil antennas

Nope! I went over and looked at it from one foot away. One single CB whip
wound into about a 3-4" coil about halfway up. Looked pretty good, too. I
just don't know how he did it; never seen that done before.

73

Jerry

I have seen large coil springs being made. One long steel rod is allowed to
roll down an incline from a hopper of rods. Each end of the rod is grasped
with an electrode and a large amount of current is sent through the rod. In
about 10 or 15 seconds, the rod becomes red hot. The soft rod is then wound
around a cylinder to form a coil. I do not remember what heat treating was
applied.

One could use such a procedure with the SS whip.

73 Mac N8TT

--
J. Mc Laughlin; Michigan U.S.A.
Home:


I once saw a 102" whip on a motor home that had literally been wound
into
a 4 " dia coil about half way up! It looked like one of those CB "big
coil" trucker antennas except it was all in one piece. I can only
surmise that he heated it and wound it around some sort of form. It
shortened the thing down to less that 5 feet. But, then, wouldn't that
take the temper out of the steel and make it flop over the next time it
was hit? There was also no evidence of heating, either; it looked like
it had been formed at the beginning of its life. Anybody ever see
anyone
do this before. If so, how was it done?

73

Jerry
--


Wouldnt be that hard to do, You can retemper the steel if it gets soft
and
the discoloring will buff off.
tempering metal takes some specific knowledge and experience. Ive done
it
to tools and had some success but I have also made them to brittle and
they break.

Of course it may have been one of those big coil antennas

Nope! I went over and looked at it from one foot away. One single CB whip
wound into about a 3-4" coil about halfway up. Looked pretty good, too. I
just don't know how he did it; never seen that done before.

73

Jerry

On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:12:09 GMT, "Merlin-7 KI4ILB"
wrote:

I just bought a 10 meter mobile rig (25 watt old radio shack rig).

I was planing on cutting down a 102" CB whip to 10 meter band.

Anyone know of any type of antenna that would work better?

Thanks
Joe
KI4ILB


I know this is an old post, but I only just now found and read it,
so I hope it is of interest to someone, if not the original poster.

Now that that's over, (whew) I installed a 102" SS whip, spring, and
ball mount I got from Rat Shack on the side of my 94 Plymouth Sundance's
left rear fender, (the trunk lid is fiberglass so I couldn't mount it there)
and it works great as it was. I got a near perfect match across the 10 meter
band without a tuner and I didn't have to trim it one iota. If I needed,
there is a little room for adjustment in the mount as the whip is secured
with a hex head set screw in the mount. That should give enough wiggle room
to get a decent match without having to cut the whip.

I have a tuner, (a Drake MN-4) I use in the car, but I use in bypass
mode for 10 meters. It will tune the whip from 20 through 10 meters with an
SWR typically under 1.5:1 on all those bands. It won't tune to a useable SWR
for anything lower in frequency than 20 meters though, so I will have to
come up with another antenna that I can hopefully use with the same mount
for 40, and hopefully through 80 meters.

Again, I know this is a reply to a nearly 7 month old post, but I
hope it is of use to someone anyway.

Rob

"Rob" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:12:09 GMT, "Merlin-7 KI4ILB"
wrote:

I just bought a 10 meter mobile rig (25 watt old radio shack rig).

I was planing on cutting down a 102" CB whip to 10 meter band.

Anyone know of any type of antenna that would work better?

Thanks
Joe
KI4ILB


I know this is an old post, but I only just now found and read it,
so I hope it is of interest to someone, if not the original poster.

Now that that's over, (whew) I installed a 102" SS whip, spring, and
ball mount I got from Rat Shack on the side of my 94 Plymouth Sundance's
left rear fender, (the trunk lid is fiberglass so I couldn't mount it
there)
and it works great as it was. I got a near perfect match across the 10
meter
band without a tuner and I didn't have to trim it one iota. If I needed,
there is a little room for adjustment in the mount as the whip is secured
with a hex head set screw in the mount. That should give enough wiggle
room
to get a decent match without having to cut the whip.

I have a tuner, (a Drake MN-4) I use in the car, but I use in bypass
mode for 10 meters. It will tune the whip from 20 through 10 meters with
an
SWR typically under 1.5:1 on all those bands. It won't tune to a useable
SWR
for anything lower in frequency than 20 meters though, so I will have to
come up with another antenna that I can hopefully use with the same mount
for 40, and hopefully through 80 meters.

Again, I know this is a reply to a nearly 7 month old post, but I
hope it is of use to someone anyway.

Rob

Thanks, I have my home up for sale, so I have not had time to mount the 10
meter rig in my truck yet. Besides the rig is in storage 300 miles away from
here.
I hope my home sells soon, I had to take down my tower and pack up most
everything I own to show the house... I think I am going thru withdrawl...

Im glad to hear that it works well, I may toss the analiser on the 11 meter
whip that is already on the truck. If it works out I may only need to add an
antenna switch.
I only use the 11 meter rig durring hurricane season but it would be nice
not to need to change antennas when I do need it. The truck also has a 2
meter colinear on it thats 6 feet tall or so. I would not mind adding
another HF antenna but 2 long antennas on it is enough.
Thanks again
Joe

"Rob" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:12:09 GMT, "Merlin-7 KI4ILB"
wrote:

I just bought a 10 meter mobile rig (25 watt old radio shack rig).

I was planing on cutting down a 102" CB whip to 10 meter band.

Anyone know of any type of antenna that would work better?

Thanks
Joe
KI4ILB


I know this is an old post, but I only just now found and read it,
so I hope it is of interest to someone, if not the original poster.

Now that that's over, (whew) I installed a 102" SS whip, spring, and
ball mount I got from Rat Shack on the side of my 94 Plymouth Sundance's
left rear fender, (the trunk lid is fiberglass so I couldn't mount it
there)
and it works great as it was. I got a near perfect match across the 10
meter
band without a tuner and I didn't have to trim it one iota. If I needed,
there is a little room for adjustment in the mount as the whip is secured
with a hex head set screw in the mount. That should give enough wiggle
room
to get a decent match without having to cut the whip.

I have a tuner, (a Drake MN-4) I use in the car, but I use in bypass
mode for 10 meters. It will tune the whip from 20 through 10 meters with
an
SWR typically under 1.5:1 on all those bands. It won't tune to a useable
SWR
for anything lower in frequency than 20 meters though, so I will have to
come up with another antenna that I can hopefully use with the same mount
for 40, and hopefully through 80 meters.

Again, I know this is a reply to a nearly 7 month old post, but I
hope it is of use to someone anyway.

Rob


The long antenna probably tunes up on 10M because of the fiberglass trunk
lid. Had the lid been metal it would have been the responsibel for the
largest portion of the capacitance needed to resonate the antenna. Without
this capcitance the antenna will need to be longer than normal to achive
resonance on 10M. One advantage of this that you have noted is a better
match to 50 ohms. Longer antenna = greater L, fibergllass lid = less
capacitance which gives a higher LC ratio at resonance.

Jimmie

"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...

"Rob" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:12:09 GMT, "Merlin-7 KI4ILB"
wrote:

I just bought a 10 meter mobile rig (25 watt old radio shack rig).

I was planing on cutting down a 102" CB whip to 10 meter band.

Anyone know of any type of antenna that would work better?

Thanks
Joe
KI4ILB


I know this is an old post, but I only just now found and read it,
so I hope it is of interest to someone, if not the original poster.

Now that that's over, (whew) I installed a 102" SS whip, spring, and
ball mount I got from Rat Shack on the side of my 94 Plymouth Sundance's
left rear fender, (the trunk lid is fiberglass so I couldn't mount it
there)
and it works great as it was. I got a near perfect match across the 10
meter
band without a tuner and I didn't have to trim it one iota. If I needed,
there is a little room for adjustment in the mount as the whip is secured
with a hex head set screw in the mount. That should give enough wiggle
room
to get a decent match without having to cut the whip.

I have a tuner, (a Drake MN-4) I use in the car, but I use in bypass
mode for 10 meters. It will tune the whip from 20 through 10 meters with
an
SWR typically under 1.5:1 on all those bands. It won't tune to a useable
SWR
for anything lower in frequency than 20 meters though, so I will have to
come up with another antenna that I can hopefully use with the same mount
for 40, and hopefully through 80 meters.

Again, I know this is a reply to a nearly 7 month old post, but I
hope it is of use to someone anyway.

Rob


The long antenna probably tunes up on 10M because of the fiberglass trunk
lid. Had the lid been metal it would have been the responsibel for the
largest portion of the capacitance needed to resonate the antenna. Without
this capcitance the antenna will need to be longer than normal to achive
resonance on 10M. One advantage of this that you have noted is a better
match to 50 ohms. Longer antenna = greater L, fibergllass lid = less
capacitance which gives a higher LC ratio at resonance.

Jimmie

He mounted the antenna on the fender (because the trunk was fiberglass).
With that in mind, how does the trunk lid being fiberglass lessen the
capacitance of the circuit?
Doesn't the fender 'take the place' of the trunk lid?
I would reccommend someone using a metal trunk lid as a mounting surface to
install some copper wire jumpers from the lid to the rest of the body. Some
folks even go ahead and install copper jumpers to join all parts of the body
to each other and to the frame, motor, and neg battery terminal.

"Hal Rosser" wrote in message
...

"Jimmie D" wrote in message
...

"Rob" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 01:12:09 GMT, "Merlin-7 KI4ILB"
wrote:

I just bought a 10 meter mobile rig (25 watt old radio shack rig).

I was planing on cutting down a 102" CB whip to 10 meter band.

Anyone know of any type of antenna that would work better?

Thanks
Joe
KI4ILB


I know this is an old post, but I only just now found and read it,
so I hope it is of interest to someone, if not the original poster.

Now that that's over, (whew) I installed a 102" SS whip, spring, and
ball mount I got from Rat Shack on the side of my 94 Plymouth Sundance's
left rear fender, (the trunk lid is fiberglass so I couldn't mount it
there)
and it works great as it was. I got a near perfect match across the 10
meter
band without a tuner and I didn't have to trim it one iota. If I
needed,
there is a little room for adjustment in the mount as the whip is
secured
with a hex head set screw in the mount. That should give enough wiggle
room
to get a decent match without having to cut the whip.

I have a tuner, (a Drake MN-4) I use in the car, but I use in bypass
mode for 10 meters. It will tune the whip from 20 through 10 meters with
an
SWR typically under 1.5:1 on all those bands. It won't tune to a useable
SWR
for anything lower in frequency than 20 meters though, so I will have to
come up with another antenna that I can hopefully use with the same
mount
for 40, and hopefully through 80 meters.

Again, I know this is a reply to a nearly 7 month old post, but I
hope it is of use to someone anyway.

Rob


The long antenna probably tunes up on 10M because of the fiberglass trunk
lid. Had the lid been metal it would have been the responsibel for the
largest portion of the capacitance needed to resonate the antenna.
Without this capcitance the antenna will need to be longer than normal to
achive resonance on 10M. One advantage of this that you have noted is a
better match to 50 ohms. Longer antenna = greater L, fibergllass lid =
less capacitance which gives a higher LC ratio at resonance.

Jimmie

He mounted the antenna on the fender (because the trunk was fiberglass).
With that in mind, how does the trunk lid being fiberglass lessen the
capacitance of the circuit?
Doesn't the fender 'take the place' of the trunk lid?
I would reccommend someone using a metal trunk lid as a mounting surface
to install some copper wire jumpers from the lid to the rest of the body.
Some folks even go ahead and install copper jumpers to join all parts of
the body to each other and to the frame, motor, and neg battery terminal.



Which do you think will offer more capacitance to the antenna, a metal trunk
lid wich is a 90 degrees to the antenna and relaatively wide or the narrow
fender that falls away from the antenna quickly.

Jimmie

snip

He mounted the antenna on the fender (because the trunk was fiberglass).
With that in mind, how does the trunk lid being fiberglass lessen the
capacitance of the circuit?
Doesn't the fender 'take the place' of the trunk lid?
I would reccommend someone using a metal trunk lid as a mounting surface
to
install some copper wire jumpers from the lid to the rest of the body.
Some
folks even go ahead and install copper jumpers to join all parts of the
body
to each other and to the frame, motor, and neg battery terminal.


I am the king of grounding..
One note on that...most tail pipes on cars/trucks are hung with rubber
hangers in the middle of them so that they can flex. What you end up with is
a large diameter pipe (sometimes they match up on a frequency that you use),
mostly around 10 meter band but I guess It could be any number of
frequency's depending on the length of pipe)
I have found cases where the radio was picking up, what sounded like
ignition noise but after the tail pipe was grounded in a couple of places,
the noise dissapeared.

Joe