I plan to use a 3 conductor white AC extension cord running along the eaves of
my house instead of the regular whip that came with my screwdriver antenna.
(There will be some slack to allow for coil movement). The idea is to disguise
the antenna (the base will be hidden). Plus this will give me more length -
probably about 25 ft. I will connect all 3 wires together at the bottom, but
plan to leave them unconnected at the top. Or should I connect them? Any
disadvantages?

Thanks,

Ron, W4TQT

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 03:22:28 GMT, Ron wrote:

I plan to use a 3 conductor white AC extension cord running along the eaves of
my house instead of the regular whip that came with my screwdriver antenna.
(There will be some slack to allow for coil movement). The idea is to disguise
the antenna (the base will be hidden). Plus this will give me more length -
probably about 25 ft. I will connect all 3 wires together at the bottom, but
plan to leave them unconnected at the top. Or should I connect them? Any
disadvantages?

Thanks,

Ron, W4TQT

Hi Ron,

As odd as it may sound, you may end up with too much wire for the
screwdriver. But it certainly is worth a try and simple enough to
change.

As an alternative, split the wire and connect half to the shell side
of the screwdriver (or maybe a third to a quarter). You need to
replace the missing car chassis as counterpoise (or let the feedline
do that through Common Mode).

1 wire, 2 or 3 are not going to make much difference, and you would
gain on the invisibility side of things by going with a single
conductor.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Clark wrote:

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 03:22:28 GMT, Ron wrote:


I plan to use a 3 conductor white AC extension cord running along the eaves of
my house instead of the regular whip that came with my screwdriver antenna.
(There will be some slack to allow for coil movement). The idea is to disguise
the antenna (the base will be hidden). Plus this will give me more length -
probably about 25 ft. I will connect all 3 wires together at the bottom, but
plan to leave them unconnected at the top. Or should I connect them? Any
disadvantages?

Thanks,

Ron, W4TQT


Hi Ron,

As odd as it may sound, you may end up with too much wire for the
screwdriver. But it certainly is worth a try and simple enough to
change.

As an alternative, split the wire and connect half to the shell side
of the screwdriver (or maybe a third to a quarter). You need to
replace the missing car chassis as counterpoise (or let the feedline
do that through Common Mode).

I am using the radial system consisting of 8 X 10 ft wires that came with the
antena.

1 wire, 2 or 3 are not going to make much difference, and you would
gain on the invisibility side of things by going with a single
conductor.

Wouldn't using all 3 wires give me the effect of a larger diameter wire which
would result in a broader tuning antenna?

Ron
73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 13:23:51 GMT, Ron wrote:


Wouldn't using all 3 wires give me the effect of a larger diameter wire which
would result in a broader tuning antenna?

Ron

Hi Ron,

Sure, but you have a tuner don't you? If it was short and fat, yes,
it would lower the load on re-tuning, but you've gone for long and
thin. 3 wires in a bundle is not very broadening until you get into
high HF (and barely there). You have to remember that all things
explained about antennas eventually are boiled down to a simple
relationship between wavelength and physical dimension; this includes
how "thick" an antenna might be considered. An example of this:
http://home.comcast.net/~kb7qhc/ante.../Cage/cage.htm

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard Clark wrote:

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 13:23:51 GMT, Ron wrote:


Wouldn't using all 3 wires give me the effect of a larger diameter wire which
would result in a broader tuning antenna?

Ron


Hi Ron,

Sure, but you have a tuner don't you? If it was short and fat, yes,
it would lower the load on re-tuning, but you've gone for long and
thin. 3 wires in a bundle is not very broadening until you get into
high HF (and barely there). You have to remember that all things
explained about antennas eventually are boiled down to a simple
relationship between wavelength and physical dimension; this includes
how "thick" an antenna might be considered. An example of this:
http://home.comcast.net/~kb7qhc/ante.../Cage/cage.htm

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Richard,

Yes I have a tuner, but I prefer a broad resonance curve. I compared two regular
whips, one thin and the other maybe 3 times as thick. The thicker one seemed to
have a broader tuning characteristic and required less length to resonate at a
given frequency.

Anyway, since there are three wires in the cord, I thought I might as well use
them. Three wires may not be be much better than one, but at least they
shouldn't be worse. The extension cord is the round type and looks more like an
AC cord than an antenna. That's why I am using it.

73, Ron W4TQT