> Apparently some people desperately want to hear: "yes this small so called
> magnetic loop is as good as Tom's phased Beverage's, or John's (K9DX)
> 9-circle", and "yes you can do it all from 1/2 acre, no need for Beverages
> etc etc. "
That's not what I said and that's not what I want to hear. I want to hear more
activity on the low bands. Amateur HF activity is declining. Why? What can we
do to stimulate activity? I don't think concentrating a major part of a book on
Techniques on antennas fewer than 1% of the world's hams can install is the way
to go. I'm sorry but it just seems very elitist. The majority of hams fall into
the category covered in one chapter, at the end of the book (I have the edition
before the current one), that reads more like a sidebar.
> No, there is NO free lunch in this real world.
True enough. But at the rate we're going, in another 10 years you may end up
having the whole band to yourself because the OTs are dead and the new guys
figure it isn't worth trying, since they live in circumstances that preclude
best-case antenna installations. You don't have to win contests to have a good
time. There is nothing wrong with not being able to make contacts on a nearly
dead band. But there is a prevalent attitude among many, many hams that they
simply cannot operate on the low bands because they don't have the real estate.
Go to hamfests and ask them. I have.
I would like everyone to be the type of person who tries something even if it
looks hopeless, but not everyone is like that. People need encouragement. I
built my receiving loop before I discovered it had all but disappeared from
your book. There is simply no way I am going to put up and take down a K9AY
loop every night -- I'd never have time to get on the air. So I'll never
compete with W8JI. But if we want to get more people on the air, we have to
push antennas they will try for starters. You aren't going to get someone
interested in ham radio by pointing them to Jon Zaimes's Website and telling
them that's what they need. You start them out with a dipole and a transceiver.
Once the bug bites... Ditto 160. A simple receiving loop may not be as good as
a Beverage, but it's probably a better receiving antenna than an inverted L,
and it's cheap and easy to build. Once the bug bites...
> Well, maybe it's time someone new in the game published a book that teaches
> us how to do it properly?
Before we can teach we have to learn to be teachers. Before we can teach them
about four squares and Beverages, we have to get them on the bands in the first
place, so they will be willing to invest the time, money and effort to be big
guns. Or we'll be a shrinking group of old farts who only work each other.
That's the direction I see ham radio going.
> PS: by the way, I never have worked KR1S on 160 or 80, and I have
> 44,000 QSO's on 160 in my log.. Last QSO with KR1S was 1992 on 40m.
Sorry I missed you in CQ WW this year. I operated 80 m on Saturday night local
time, and worked several ONs, but not you. Maybe we'll QSO in the ARRL Test in
February. It takes some effort for me to get on the air,
(http://kr1s.kearman.com/ -- OTOH, of the more than 100 hams in my town, I am
the only one on the low bands AFAIK; I guess they know you can't succeed on the
low bands without big antennas and Beverages) so I try to pick nights when
propagation looks very good, and I can stay up all nightr.
73,
Jim, KR1S
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