I think quite a few of us probably have stories like this. In the past
couple of years I have run into a few hams on the local repeater who
unfortunately are so concerned with getting the perfect antenna up that they
have nothing up. A 20 meter dipole at 3 feet high will outperform a 20
meter dipole lying in the closet in a package because you can't get it at
the optimal height.
My first VHF contest was run with my friend Dave, KA0GOA, who had picked up
a Yaesu FT221 2 meter all mode rig. We ran a 5 element beam on a camera
tripod in his basement. It was probably below ground level, but we worked 4
states on it. That was one of the last VHF contests that used states
instead of grid squares for multipliers. I am sure it would model horribly,
but we sure had a lot of fun doing it.
73 John AF5CC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Osborne" <w7why@frontier.com>
To: "Towertalk" <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 3:04 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Off Center Fed Antennas
Interesting story. Kinda like my early days.
My first novice antenna back in '54 was a 40 meter dipole about 15 feet
high fed with telephone twisted pair. Bent 1 wire of the twisted pair and
stuck it into the coax jack on the transmitter. Taped the other leg to
the outside of the coax jack with black tape.
I didn't know it wasn't supposed to work, so I just got on the air and
made contacts with my Heathkit AT-1 transmitter :-) 73
Tom W7WHY
Back when I first got on the air from my home QTH (we had a radio club at
my
junior high which I used for about a year before getting my own station),
I
had a Hy-Gain 14AVQ 40-10 meter vertical which I ground mounted. Didn't
use
any radials, didn't know I really needed them. Remember, I was a new
novice
and the internet wasn't around then. I just drove a ground rod into the
ground and attached part of the vertical to that. Got DXCC plus using
that
antenna. I am convinced that it worked pretty well because I didn't know
it
wasn't supposed to work with that setup. Had lots of fun with a couple of
end fed random wires after the vertical as well.
73 John AF5CC
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