[TowerTalk] 160-m Inverted L or Sloper?

[Jim Brown]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 09:21:54 -0600, Doug Renwick wrote:

>You forget that a lot of the worlds
>inventions, discoveries were/are made by accident.

It has also been observed that those unwilling to study history 
are doomed to repeat it. A similar observation could be made 
regarding a failure to use the scientific method. My own personal 
observation is that if you believe there is a difference between 
theory and practice, you don't know enough about one or the other 
(that is, you either don't know enough science, or you haven't 
found all the variables at play in a given practical situation). 

Tom has correctly observed that there is a lot more to making a 
wire sloping off of a tower work than hooking it up, and that 
there are  a lot of variables in the equation. If you know about 
those variables and optimize them (or if you luck into a 
relatively good combination), it can work fine. If your design or 
luck is not so good, the result won't be either. 

But there are at least two other points here. 1) Anyone can build 
an ideal antenna system with an infinite budget -- lots of land, 
no restrictions, big towers, big ground system. 2) Most of us are 
stuck with less than ideal conditions for our antenna farms -- 
small lots, restrictions, limited budgets -- and we must do the 
best with what we have. Both are part of the fun of ham radio. All 
things being equal, the most successful approach will be one that 
starts with existing conditions and applies the most science to 
those conditions. 

Jim Brown K9YC