You ask why there are lots of reviews from people who love the Isotron
even though you can't find anyone who has used it. I don't know why you
can't find anyone who has used it, but I can explain some (most? all?)
of the good reviews.
First, some people tend to give five-star reviews for stuff they like,
but not love. I tend to not give five-star reviews for 'seems to work
the way it's supposed to' because that's not outstanding, it's expected,
but I am known to be odd. Second, some people are likely fans of
Isotron for other reasons and they would give a five star review to an
such an antenna made of wet string lying on the ground and disconnected
from the feedline.
The thing is, most people have no real idea how to evaluate an antenna
and definitely don't have the setup for it. The equipment most hams
used to evaluate an antenna is an SWR meter, but an SWR meter, in and of
itself, tells you precisely nothing about how well an antenna is
working. The proper tool to use is a field strength meter, but using
one of those for an HF antenna usually requires more land than a typical
ham has access to and more time and effort than they're likely to want
to go to. So, what is someone to do?
Well, when I was looking into the "EH Antenna" (don't judge me--I seek
the Holy Grail of antennas just like every ham) I found that typically
people would describe "far off" stations as loud or talk about working
stations at so many km. For a receiving antenna, efficiency is not
paramount, so signal strengths are a misleading measure, and the
distances for stations worked were on the order of 150km, as I recall.
I'm not impressed by working a station 150km away on 40m using a small
antenna, but if you're getting contacts through this sheet metal
contraption, you can't say that it doesn't work. If it's working for
you, meaning you're making Q's, then why not give it a positive review?
Antenna selection is often a matter of balancing what you want to do
against how much money you have to spend and other restrictions you
might have. There's an old list of "antenna truths" that I saw that
began with "Any antenna is better than no antenna" and for many people,
the Isotron is what they can get an use and it does what they need it to
do, so they give it five stars.
A good option for 20m? Have you considered a TH-11DX up about 100 feet?
On 12/21/20 2:45 PM, Mark Brantana via BVARC wrote:
Thanks to everyone for the insightful comments. I will put the light
bulb antenna on my list. Could an LED work? It should consume less power.
How come, though, there are so many comments from those who have no
experience with the isotonic antenna, yet eHam is loaded with reviews
from people who love them? Rick makes a good technical point I need to
consider, but don’t understand why wHam has 78 reviews in the past 180
days give a 5-star average rating for the antenna, and 3.9-star
average overall. I get that there have been disappointing novel
antennas in the past. Anyone remember the can field antenna?
I am looking for a good option for 20 m and have the coax run and
waiting for the right selection. Open to ideas.
Mark N5PRD
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 21, 2020, at 10:39 AM, Jonathan Guthrie via BVARC
<[email protected]> wrote:
I have one I got from K5LDD. It's for 80 meters, it comes with no
instructions and some parts may be missing. You want it?
It should work reasonable well as a radiator, physically small
antennas have been used by many people with great success, but its
feedpoint impedance is going to vary rapidly with frequency and that
means it's going to be fiddly to use. At my age, I dislike fiddly.
On 12/21/20 9:12 AM, Mark Brantana via BVARC wrote:
Thank you, Rick.
Saw one on Dave Casler’s blog last night. He is planning to test it
out. They are said to be good on one band only. Have been a try
around 30 years. I saw a surprising number of 5 star reviews. Has
anyone here tried one? Could just come down to cognitive dissonance
on their part.
Mark
N5PRD
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 21, 2020, at 6:25 AM, Rick Hiller via BVARC
<[email protected]> wrote:
Very high Q. Finicky. Poor radiator.
Sent from my i-Thingamajig
On Dec 21, 2020, at 12:14 AM, Michael Monsour via BVARC
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
You might have the same luck using a light bulb for an antenna-at
least it will be cheaper
On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 10:32 PM Mark Brantana via BVARC
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Anyone have any experience with an Isotron antenna?
Mark
N5PRD
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ARS KA8KPN
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