[TowerTalk] Flagpoles as a Stealth Antenna

[K7GCO@aol.com]

I In a message dated Wed, 20 Dec 2000 10:25:18 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
 Richard Thorne <rthorne@tcac.net> writes:
  << Hello Group:
 A friend mentioned and idea for a stealth antenna that got me to
 thinking.
 
 Anyone out there using a flagpole as a vertical?  If so is it
 metal/fiberglass?  How do you feed it.
 
 Looking for multi band ideas, say 10 through 40.
 
 Thanks in advance.
 73,
  Richard Thorne
 ARS N5ZC (ex KA2DSY, N2BHP, WB5M)
 Remote Control Airplanes:  AMA# 657062
 http://www.tcac.net/~rthorne/
   >>
Flag pole verticals were a necessity at certain locations like on top of 
Apartments with restrictions.  The Hy Gain trap verticals were stuck inside 
of 2" PVC.  It kept it real clean also.  One guy over did his patriotic 
actions too far with 3 in a triangle he could phase and it began to look 
fishy.  I was looking at an unused 65' tapered flag pole back in Sioux Falls, 
SD that was well built.  There are lots of these around.

In the book "The Death Of Lord Ha Ha", the Stealth vertical concept was used 
during WWII in NY City for the German Short Wave Broadcaster equivalent of 
Tokyo Rose.  The broadcast supposedly came from Germany.  It was a 1/4 wave 
inside a wood flag pole installed in NY City Parks by German sympathizers 
dressed as NY City workers.  The coax ran to a street parking area where a 
Milk Truck would drop a hose to the pavement.  They were lucky the Health 
Dept didn't see this.  As I recall they had a couple of these on different 
frequencies along with some other antennas on the water front like a water 
tower.  

They would introduce static audio to make it sound like a normal SW 
broadcast.  However monitoring stations in NY and England noticed signal 
differences such that something was wrong with normal signal strengths and 
their directions.  In NY the signal was "strong without QSB even with static 
at times?"  He had access to certain information too quickly to be 
broadcasting from Germany.  They finally wised up, started looking in NYCity 
and found him.  It took awhile and "Bunny Hunt Techniques" in the SW Bands 
hadn't been developed yet.  Reflections in NYCity were something.  It's time 
to reread this book.  SW listening was really something in the 30's & 40's.  
The power went off here last week and let me tell you the band noise was 
really low on battery receivers.  

Gamma matching a water tower is a great idea--what a buried ground system.  
There is a "160M Water Tower" out in the country 1 mile from my new QTH in SD 
and no power lines around.  I was thinking of running a 1 mile Beverage to it 
and gamma match it for a 600 ohm +/- termination.  I think big and long, I 
have it in Eznec and the Farmers are friendly  K7GCO

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