On 8/21/2018 12:18 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
Any excuse for a contest , including this one, is fine by me. But the
premise behind it ... that the bulb is doing most of the radiating ...
is totally bogus.
Not necessarily. The premise is based on an excellent July 2000 QST
piece by N6BT, where the light bulb was decoupled by a common mode choke
to minimize radiation by the coax feedline. He was simply demonstrating
that "everything works -- at least a bit," and was used to drive home
the point that even lousy antennas will make QSOs.
A search for N6BT as author on the Technical section of the ARRL website
for QST articles will find it.
Tom is the designer of the original Force 12 antennas, which are highly
regarded, and his self-published "Array of Light" is well worth finding
and reading. It's full of good engineering insights and debunks a lot of
myths (and false claims) in advertising about antennas.
I read the material on his web site and it's incredibly full of holes.
It does need the requirement for a serious common mode choke.
73, Jim K9YC
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