Bill - and group! I sure wish I had the brains and experience to answer these questions but I don't. My expertise lies in other fields. When they named us "amateurs" they must have meant me ;).
Hopefully, other listers with deeper technical knowledge will comment. I can only address my actual experiences. I can tell you is that this antenna WORKS GREAT if the measure of *success* is a practical one -- how many QSOs can I make, can I hold a QSO for more than the usual (unfortunately) 30 seconds it takes to get a "599 and a TU", and are my rig's finals happy. Most of all, can I add new countries to my list? What my video shows is an end-fed (i.e. awful high impedance!) vertical piece of wire that uses its coax feedline's shield for the small current return at this impedance (as I *think* I understand it). Above this halfwave, it works better than below. So yes, it most certainly is *only* a halfwave antenna for 20 meters. But I've worked DX with it on 30 and 40 meters also. On 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 it's super - practically speaking. Bill, my station at home is grounded to a *real* cold water pipe; I don't have any RF floating around at home. Touching my rig produces none of the usual indications of floating RF. When I brought it to Tony's house for the video, it was not grounded. Still didn't exhibit any bad habits. I sure didn't mean to cause any controversy and I never intended to suggest that *my* antenna is something special - rather, it is an effective and far less costly alternative to the many commercial "portable" antennas that so many hams turn to when they decide to try away-from-home operating or, like me, they face rather severe antenna restrictions. I don't mean to impugn the many commercial products out there. I happen to own an HFp vertical and it's a good portable antenna that fits in an 18" nylon bag. If I'm going somewhere on an airplane, that's what I'd pack! But if I want to operate closer to home - or, in my case - I want an alternative to the 44' non-resonant doublet in my attic which is oriented East-West, I can just push this vertical solution up in about 30 seconds and have fabulous success with it. 73 to all and to all a good night (hey, Christmas is around the corner ;) Stan WB2LQF On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 3:47 PM, Bill Ross wrote: > Stan and group, I found this post and referenced video very > interesting. However I am bothered by several things. > > First, a multi-band antenna cannot be a “end-fed half wave” on all > bands. only on one band, as far as I know. > I’ve read many articles about “end-fed half wave” antennas over the > years, and they have always been single band antennas with special > matching circuits to tune them, and most have agreed that when they > are a half wave on the frequency used, a counterpoise or radial is not > required. > Which leads me to question the statement that a counterpoise or radial > other than maybe a one meter or less one is required for this antenna. > A 30’ antenna will only be a half wave near 20 meters, what happens on > the rest of the bands? I know that sometimes using 5 watts or less, > you might not notice a hot chassis or RF floating around, but, what is > going to happen when you load this antenna with 100 watts? > > I would appreciate hearing from others and what they think about the > questions I have raised. > > 73, Bill, k6mgo > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
