TopBand: $400 Beverage Antennas

[K1MEM@aol.com]

I was browsing through some SWL sites for MW info and came across this on
beverage antennas at: http://swl.sds.se/dswci/dxwin49.html

If you are interested in MW BEVERAGE ANTENNAS, check out BADXer Steve Byan's
"Oak Ridge Radio" website, <http://www.ultranet.com/~oakridge/> Most
interesting: his article on the Remote Controlled Termination (RCT) Beverage
Antenna. The antenna uses a cadmium sulfide photocell as the Beverage
termination resistance. The brighter the light on the photocell, the lower
its resistance. A 12-volt lamp illuminates the photocell. The resistance of
the photocell is controlled by adjusting the voltage on the lamp with a pot.
He uses #22 gauge stranded twisted-pair wire both as the antenna and to feed
the control voltage to the lamp. The voltage across the twisted-pair drives
the lamp at the terminator. Both wires in the twisted pair are AC-coupled to
the photocell, which is connected to the ground system (a good ground is
needed). And good news: effective March 1997, Steve will be manufacturing and
selling the RCT Beverages (he also sells "opto-isolators" which contain the
photocell and lamp encapsulated in an epoxy package). Also coming to the
site, two articles by Steve: "An Introduction to Beverage Antennas" and
"Beverage Antenna Termination--Why Bother?" The site also contains links to
some H. H. Beverage interview transcripts. You can reach Steve at Oak Ridge
Radio, P.O. Box 2092, Littleton, MA 01460-3092, oakridge@ultranet.com, FAX
508/486-0895. Price for the RCT Beverage will be in the $400 range. Steve is
a serious hobbyist and an accomplished electronics professional, and I would
have high confidence in anything he is involved in.' (Jerry Berg via Numero
Uno)


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