[TenTec] OCF Antennas - Which commercial antenna is gest?

[Clayton Brantley]

What antenna is BEST????   Very good question.  I worked for a few years with Al Henderson ex K6AJ now a SK.He made antennas for the navy and a few other users.  Most were verticals that would tune to 1/4 wave length inside 
some special piping that was filled with nitrogen.  These things would run north of $10k!  Worked like a champ too.He had pictures of his antennas mounted on aircraft carriers.
Now to the point of this discussion, Al told me the impedance of free space is 377 ohms and that is why the quad antennais such a good antenna.  He maintained that an antenna could be simply thought of as a transformer to bring the outputof the transmitter from 50 ohms to 377 ohms.  The biggest part of the antenna that is near the "magic 377 ohms" worksthe best.
I know this might be a bit off the original topic, but thought I'd toss Al's ideas out and see what others think.
73 Clayton N4EV

      From: Wade Staggs <tvman1954 at gmail.com>
 To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec at contesting.com> 
 Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2015 4:04 AM
 Subject: Re: [TenTec] OCF Antennas - Which commercial antenna is gest?
   
*Hello Rick,*
*                  You have a very good memory! I use the Ugly Balun (
about 12 feet of RG-8 wrapped around a 3 inch PVC Pipe ) this is a Current
Balun. Although we don't like the loss from the Coax. We haven't been able
to justify a proper 1 to 1 Current Balun yet. About 75 feet of 450 ohm
Window Line. The untuned SWR on 75 meters is about 1.7 to 1 and less than 3
to 1 on all but 15 meters. We just wanted to complement you on your
excellent memory. *
*                                                                  73 from
Wade/KJ4WS*

On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 1:33 AM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP <Rick at dj0ip.de> wrote:

> As far as I could determine, the first Windom (on record) being fed with
> coax was built by Buck Rogers, K4ABT in 1959.  He built it after having met
> with Lew McCoy, W1ICP (if my memory is correct).
>
> Buck fed his with RG-11 and used a 1:1 coax balun consisting of 9 turns of
> coax on 8" air core.
> Might have been 8 turns on 9" but I think it was the other way around.
>
> Considering the antenna has about 235 Ohms on 80/40/20/10 when it's under
> 50' high, then the mismatch was only 3:1.
> In the 1960's, 3:1 was more or less considered to be a perfect match!
> I still consider it to be.
>
> BTW, I met with Lew in 1963 but our topic was openwire-fed dipoles.
> After Lew described the antenna, I rushed out and bought a Johnson Viking
> Kilowatt matchbox and built my openwire using plastic hair curlers (which I
> "borrowed" from my mom and two sisters) as spacers.
> I caught living hell for stealing their curlers but it was worth it!  ;-)
>
> 73 - Rick, DJ0IP
> (Nr. Frankfurt am Main)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Paul
> Gates
> Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2015 4:55 AM
> To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
> Cc: N4BE_Jim at yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: [TenTec] OCF Antennas - Which commercial antenna is gest?
>
> Back inthe 80s I had a windom antenna 120 ft with the split at 40 and 80
> ft.
> No balun. I worked 80, 40, 20 and 15 with a tuner.
> Paul, KW4BD
>
>
>
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>



-- 
*Living one day at a time with Jesus as my Savior. But, still having Fun.*
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