This probably makes a better new thread than tacking on to the old one.
I've detailed a few of my antenna exploits here in the past. The search feature might find some of them.
One I never mentioned was the 6 element yagi I built using radio Shack mast for a boom. Junk elements were from several CB beam antennas. Big problem was I didn't understand the gamma match required a series capacitor. The thing was an ugly combination of rust and mis-matched parts. I thing the boom was 3 sections of mast pinned together. It sagged and looked pretty bad but would have been a barn burner if I had known about the series capacitor. Finally I pulled down and left it on the roof for a few months. The first strong wind would have done that for me anyway. Never did get it working and was stung by a wasp living in the boom when I went to take it apart.
This was in 1976. Captain & Tennile were at the top of the charts. Time to hit the beach.
My first open wire fed doublet was also useless. It a resonant length doublet fed with a resonant 1/4 wavelength of feeders. I homebrewed a link coupled tuner and got it to match but the voltage was so high it kept arcing and finally caught on fire.
It was sitting on the sidewalk between houses waiting for a weatherproofed enclosure which never came. Fed it with coax from the shack in the basement.
One day I had a 100 watt carrier into it and went outside to figure out why it wasn't stable. I was ready to give up and just goofing off pulling long arcs off the end of the output coil with a #2 pencil.
My Ph.D. next door neighbor wandered over quietly hoping not to disturb me. I noticed him but didn't let on. He watched me pulling flames from the connection to the pencil for a few minutes. Finally it was too much for him so he cleared his throat to let me know he was there. He then asked me how I was able to get that much electricity from just a wire hanging up in the air!
I've detailed a few of my antenna exploits here in the past. The search feature might find some of them.
One I never mentioned was the 6 element yagi I built using radio Shack mast for a boom. Junk elements were from several CB beam antennas. Big problem was I didn't understand the gamma match required a series capacitor. The thing was an ugly combination of rust and mis-matched parts. I thing the boom was 3 sections of mast pinned together. It sagged and looked pretty bad but would have been a barn burner if I had known about the series capacitor. Finally I pulled down and left it on the roof for a few months. The first strong wind would have done that for me anyway. Never did get it working and was stung by a wasp living in the boom when I went to take it apart.
This was in 1976. Captain & Tennile were at the top of the charts. Time to hit the beach.
My first open wire fed doublet was also useless. It a resonant length doublet fed with a resonant 1/4 wavelength of feeders. I homebrewed a link coupled tuner and got it to match but the voltage was so high it kept arcing and finally caught on fire.
It was sitting on the sidewalk between houses waiting for a weatherproofed enclosure which never came. Fed it with coax from the shack in the basement.
One day I had a 100 watt carrier into it and went outside to figure out why it wasn't stable. I was ready to give up and just goofing off pulling long arcs off the end of the output coil with a #2 pencil.
My Ph.D. next door neighbor wandered over quietly hoping not to disturb me. I noticed him but didn't let on. He watched me pulling flames from the connection to the pencil for a few minutes. Finally it was too much for him so he cleared his throat to let me know he was there. He then asked me how I was able to get that much electricity from just a wire hanging up in the air!
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