Hello Everyone
I saw somewhere that the us navy used on some of it's ships hf discone
antennas. Were they any good? are they practical? what are the pros and
cons? are they used commercially?

Than you.




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USAF MARS Station AIR used one in the 70 & 80s. Broadband, vertically
polarized, wire mesh on frame, BIG, BIGGER, REAL BIG!!

Can take a lot of real estate.

Spock wrote:

Hello Everyone
I saw somewhere that the us navy used on some of it's ships hf discone
antennas. Were they any good? are they practical? what are the pros and
cons? are they used commercially?

Than you.




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"Spock" wrote in message
u...
Hello Everyone
I saw somewhere that the us navy used on some of it's ships hf discone
antennas. Were they any good? are they practical? what are the pros and
cons? are they used commercially?

Than you.

Yes, They were fine. Worked well, practical, but heavy and took up a lot of
"real estate" topside. Useful over the freq range 10-30 in most cases.
There may be one or two left in the active Navy, but they have mostly been
replaced by twin whips. I think USS Belleau Wood (decommissioned October,
2005) still had the discone/cage combination antenna at that time. The USS
Missouri Memorial has one.

You need a sturdy center mast to support the cone section which is made of
about 25 wires. It's about 25 ft tall. The disk is insulated and sits atop
the mast. The advantage is that it's broadbanded. Good VSWR across the
band. Not much use for hams, since we just have those little slices of the
band. One vertical omni antenna has coverage just like all the other
vertical omnis.

So, you might not want to bother, except for the fun of doing it and seeing
that it works. I agree, that's reason enough for some, but it will be a lot
of effort. ARRL Antenna Book covers it nicely, too, I see.

John, KD6VKW
Combat Systems Tech,
Southwest RMC, San Diego Naval Station

I actually had the chance to use one of these at a Titan II missile site
in Wichita, KS. when I was in the USAF back in the 80's.
I had been dispatched out to the base to do some maintenance on the VHF/UHF
radio equipment they used, and our departure was delayed for awhile due to a
snow storm.
I asked the site commander if I could use the HF gear to make a few
amateur radio contacts and he gave me permission. WOW what good signal
reports!
I was running the full legal limit on 75 and 40 meters through it and
whatever I could hear I could work. I made about a dozen contacts and the
commander must have gotten a little worried and ordered me to stop.
I guess I was lucky he let me make any contacts at all considering the
situation. Nice memory:-)
Anyway, the antenna was HUGE to say the least! it was made of cable for
the skirt and large tubing for the hat radials. I would guess about
100-150'+ across the bottom of the skirt. I haven't thought about that in
years. Thanks for reminding me of those times:-) Loved being in the Air
Force!

RoD
KD0XX


"Spock" wrote in message
u...
Hello Everyone
I saw somewhere that the us navy used on some of it's ships hf discone
antennas. Were they any good? are they practical? what are the pros and
cons? are they used commercially?

Than you.




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Some large diskcones:
http://www.kh6bb.org/photos2.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../14092_ch2.pdf
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...WE:en%26sa%3DN

--
SeeYaa Harbin Osteen KG6URO

This is YOUR futu
http://halturnershow.com/aztlan_caps.wmv

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"Spock" wrote in message u...
Hello Everyone
I saw somewhere that the us navy used on some of it's ships hf discone antennas. Were they any good? are they practical? what are
the pros and cons? are they used commercially?

Than you.



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"Spock" wrote in message
u...
Hello Everyone
I saw somewhere that the us navy used on some of it's ships hf discone
antennas. Were they any good? are they practical? what are the pros and
cons? are they used commercially?

Than you.



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Remember seeing one down in South Florida back in the early 80s. Part of
quite an extensive antenna farm. Looked govt.