Polishing antenna elements...A New Angle!

[Roger L. Elowitz]

At 06:05 AM 2/15/97 +0000, you wrote:

>Roger,
>I have held my tongue (ow..).  Until now....=20
>
>I disagree with Chuck/KE5FI's assessment of the situation, but
>I also think you went overboard on your cleaning job. =20
>
>Look at this this way:=20
>
>You are on the ground somewhere below your antennas. =20
>
>Ol' Mr. Sun is somewhere above the horizon.=20
>
>Now, here's what I do to keep that giddy feeling when I see my old antennas
glinting in the sun:=20
>
>I polish up only the sides of the elements.  That's right: the sides.=20
>
>I don't polish the tops. =20
>
>I don't polish the undersides. =20
>
>Just the sides.=20
>
>Why?  What surface section is the sun glint going to reflect off
>of that you and I, mere groundpounders, are going to see, marvel at=20
>and revel in?  That's right! The sides!  Not the bottom (Oh, would that my=
=20
>antennas were THAT high!!).  Not the top (I am on the approach to=20
>Hobby (named after a person not an avocation) Airport and I used
>to worry about blinding pilot's eyes, but no more).  Just the sides. =20
>
>If I position my beam just right, at near sunset, the glint from my top
>antenna illuminates San Jacinto College campus buildings about a mile=20
>away.  Students have failed exams, screwed up their frog dissections,=20
>miskeyed their Pascal (yes, they still offer that!) programs, missed=20
>easy forehands on the tennis courts because of my antenna's glint. =20
>The school administration has asked that I keep my beam poinnting=20
>to 45, 135, 225, 315 degrees to keep from distracting their students. =20
>=20
>73,
>
>Dale Martin, KG5U
>kg5u@hal-pc.org
>http://www.hal-pc.org/~kg5u
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hi Dale,

Damn it!  You're 150% right!  Why the hell didn't I think of that?  Think of
all the labor I would have saved... easily 40%... well, maybe closer to
37=BD%... or is it 21.925%????? There's got to be someone out there with a
nomograph or an antenna modeling program who knows. Do the numbers change if
you're below the Equator?  Are stacked beams treated differently?  What
about wire antennas?  Verticals are ...of course...excepted.  You didn't
think THAT ONE would get past me...did you?

Whatever!  There's also the "big bucks" to be saved in Krylon... but keeping
the spray to the polished part of the elements can be very tricky with the
wind and all.  Probably does pay to spray paint the thing indoors anyway...
The vapors do interesting things to the few brain cells one has left.

Really enjoyed your post!  Thanks.  And don't forget to keep looking up and
keep smiling! (Didn't Jack Horkheimer of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium
say that on his PBS shows?)

Roger, K2JAS

PS... And I really thought no one on this reflector had a sense of humor...
I apologize guys!  You've restored my faith!  Put your hands on the radio...
say Ahmen!


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