I thought I was the only one who did that! My first antenna for my Viking
Adventurer Novice transmitter fed 300-ohm TV twin lead going to a folded
dipole. I stuck one wire of the twin lead in the center hole of the coax
relay's SO-239 connector, and wrapped the other wire around the outside of the
connector.
It's amazing that I made any contacts at all! When you're in Junior High School
on a limited budget, you make do with what you have. Used PL-259s that were
acquired later were unsoldered, cleaned up and resoldered many times over the
years, used with some RG-59 coax from the local cable TV company!
LJ
-----Original Message-----
>From: Tom Osborne <w7why1@gmail.com>
>Sent: Oct 2, 2017 5:33 PM
>To: towertalk@contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fan Dipole (I thought taht was the discussion)
>
>When we were Novices, it's a wonder we made any contacts at all :-) Back
>in '55, I was the only ham in Port Orford when I got on and had a sort of
>Elmer in W7EUG, who lived in Riverton. He gave me my Novice and
>Conditional tests. He had an 80 meter dipole and had it fed with that old
>'twisted pair' telephone line for a feedline. He gave me some of it to use
>on my first antenna.
>
>I had a Heathkit AT-1 transmitter and one crystal for 7178.5. I didn't
>have any PL-259's so I just bent one of the wires on the twisted pair
>(which was really stiff copperweld/steel wire) and poked it in the coax
>jack on the back of the AT-1. The other wire I just taped to the outside
>of the coax jack with a piece of tape.
>
>Actually worked a WL7 one night for my first ever DX contacts. That whet
>my appetite for more :-) 73
>Tom W7WHY
>
>
>On Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 6:22 PM, Don W7WLL <w7wll@arrl.net> wrote:
>
>> Amateur radio is more than a hobby, but that is certainly one part of the
>> definition.
>>
>> I think we, including myself, often let ourselves get embroiled in
>> subjective issues where our opinion seems important to weigh in about, over
>> other things.
>>
>> I think K9YC hit the nail on the head back a few posts, you can work the
>> world on most anything, if you've the patience. I remember as a kid back in
>> '55 actually trying to load different weird things and good friend W7GG
>> (then W7TDK) giving me signal reports from about 2 miles away. Didn't prove
>> anything but that you could do that.
>>
>> I do want to know what I should be doing, and what the supporting and
>> proven scientific methods are that support the 'should'. Like everyone who
>> puts antennas up, from a practical standpoint I probably will usually end
>> up with something a bit off mark (but will understand why and be willing to
>> live with any undesirable circumstances). You do what you got to do and
>> what you can do.
>>
>> And what antenna works on on person's site might be a dummy load on
>> another's. Just the way it is.
>>
>> Let's not get uptight. It is OK to talk about one's own experience or
>> opinion but let's not attack another's. I think it is OK and right to
>> correct something that is scientifically known to be inaccurate (but
>> careful, your circumstances may vary).
>>
>> I'm still not a Ford man but that doesn't make them a 'bad' car.
>>
>> Take a breath everyone!
>>
>> Don W7WLL
>>
>>
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