Hi Trey,
Nice talking to you the other night on topband. Just wanted to comment on
your post. I read with interest the description of your vertical. Someone
earlier had suggested Home Depot as a source for wire for Beverages. The
smallest wire that I can find at my local HD is 14ga. (Except for bell
wire.) A BIG local hardware store does not sell anything that small either.
Since the wire is for "house wiring", 14ga is as small as they go. I
haven't tried the distributors yet, I'm sure I can get it there. I was just
hoping to do a quick pickup at the local HD, since I go there about every
week :-)
>Home Depot is the name of the hardware store in Salinas (birthplace
>of the American writer John Steinbeck) where I bought the spool of
>wire.
Do you have a circuit for a bridge to measure the kharmic balance of my antenna?
:-)
>K6NA has since advised that the antenna would have a better
>kharmic balance if I had bought a spool of wire at a surplus store.
As far as radials go, if they are elevated I wouldn't bother with more than
4. I only use 2 on my balloon vertical. There was a presentation at Dayton
last year by a guy that does antenna work for BC stations. He did FS
measurements on antennas with 120 buried radials vs 4 elevated ones. After
listening to his presentation, I conclude that ONE is sufficient for
loading/matching concerns, but PAIRS are required in order for the
horizontal radiation components to be cancelled out (unless,of course, you
have so many that it electrically looks like a solid sheet). I think it is
MUCH more important to prevent feedline currents (by ferrite beads, resonant
trap, etc) than to add more elevated radials. I have my flame-proof suit
on, so fire away, guys :-))))
>3) Add more radials to the HD-Special if anyone can convince me
> it will *really* make a difference
Sure wish I had some trees out here taller than 35' :-)
Scotty, WA2DFI
Tempe, AZ
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
Submissions: topband@contesting.com
Administrative requests: topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
Sponsored by Akorn Access, Inc & N4VJ / K4AAA
|