On 6/4/2013 2:28 PM, Larry Loen wrote:
As long as we're talking OCF antennas, I've always found this an
interesting source as far as explaining them:
http://www.w8ji.com/windom_off_center_fed.htm
Yes. It should be noted that W8JI lives in the middle of nowhere, miles
from neighbors. I'm out in the country, but my nearest neighbors are
about 500 ft away, and I hear their noise.
If noise and/or RFI are not issues for you, including your ham gear, a
Windom might be a reasonable option. That's not the real world that
most of us inhabit. The average home today has dozens of switching
power supplies and more than a dozen pieces of equipment with
microprocessors. All of this stuff is a potential source of RF noise.
If you doubt this, run your ham rig on a battery, kill power to your own
home, and notice what noise goes away. If you're lucky, your own noise
won't be overpowered by what's coming from your neighbors.
The whole point of this is that if you can't hear them, you can't work
them. In the past two hours, I worked two new band-counties who were
only about S3. If my noise level was any higher I wouldn't have heard them.
No one is saying that any given antenna "won't work," we're simply
pointing out that some are better than others, and that every antenna
has its advantages and limitations. Almost all wire antennas cost about
the same to build (a couple of end insulators, a feed point insulator,
some wire, some rope, and maybe one or two pulleys), so it makes sense
to put up the best one(s) that you can based on your real estate and
availability of sky hooks.
73, Jim K9YC
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