Its a mystery to me why hams would go for a broadband antenna of any
kind, when a dipole fed with ladder line and used with a decent tuner
(auto or manual) is cheaper and more efficient. Yet, I constantly see
hams putting up T2FD resistive-loaded folded dipoles on emergency
operations centers. There is no deception here: the specs of these
antennas are published but not many hams read them and realize that such
antennas are only about 12% efficient on 80 meters. Now the military
with frequency-hopping radios needs a broadband antenna because tuners
can't hop very fast and they add bulk to the portable kit. We change
bands, but its hardly a freq-hopping mode of operation.
Years ago, I found myself in a city "somewhere in the Middle East".
There were many embassies within walking distance. I amused myself by
looking at the the HF antennas on the embassy rooftops. There were a
couple that used big log periodics, but the majority used simple dipoles
fed with 600 ohm ladder line- a design that goes back to the 30's and
40's. Why argue with success?
73,
Bob WB2VUF
Grant Youngman wrote:
Maxcom later claimed that
the unit used in the QST rewiew was a display model that had
been "stolen".
These guys are still very much in business, selling very expensive dummy
loads -- uh -- ah -- sorry, "automatic" Antenna Tuners.
The name has been changed to protect the innocent (or guilty, depending on
how you look at it).
http://www.maxx-com.com/
Enjoy ..
Grant/NQ5T
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