[TowerTalk] Off Center Fed Antennas

[John Geiger]

I think quite a few of us probably have stories like this. In the past 
couple of years I have run into a few hams on the local repeater who 
unfortunately are so concerned with getting the perfect antenna up that they 
have nothing up.  A 20 meter dipole at 3 feet high will outperform a 20 
meter dipole lying in the closet in a package because you can't get it at 
the optimal height.

My first VHF contest was run with my friend Dave, KA0GOA, who had picked up 
a Yaesu FT221 2 meter all mode rig.  We ran a 5 element beam on a camera 
tripod in his basement. It was probably below ground level, but we worked 4 
states on it.  That was one of the last VHF contests that used states 
instead of grid squares for multipliers.  I am sure it would model horribly, 
but we sure had a lot of fun doing it.

73 John AF5CC
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Osborne" <w7why at frontier.com>
To: "Towertalk" <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 3:04 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Off Center Fed Antennas


> Interesting story.  Kinda like my early days.
>
> My first novice antenna back in '54 was a 40 meter dipole about 15 feet 
> high fed with telephone twisted pair.  Bent 1 wire of the twisted pair and 
> stuck it into the coax jack on the transmitter.  Taped the other leg to 
> the outside of the coax jack with black tape.
>
> I didn't know it wasn't supposed to work, so I just got on the air and 
> made contacts with my Heathkit AT-1 transmitter :-)  73
> Tom W7WHY
>
>
>
> Back when I first got on the air from my home QTH (we had a radio club at 
> my
> junior high which I used for about a year before getting my own station), 
> I
> had a Hy-Gain 14AVQ 40-10 meter vertical which I ground mounted.  Didn't 
> use
> any radials, didn't know I really needed them.  Remember, I was a new 
> novice
> and the internet wasn't around then.  I just drove a ground rod into the
> ground and attached part of the vertical to that.  Got DXCC plus using 
> that
> antenna. I am convinced that it worked pretty well because I didn't know 
> it
> wasn't supposed to work with that setup.  Had lots of fun with a couple of
> end fed random wires after the vertical as well.
>
> 73 John AF5CC
>
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