[TowerTalk] Fw: Looking for alternative sources for fiberglassspreaders

[Ron W8RJL]

Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Looking for alternative sources for 
fiberglassspreaders


>I built the Catfish Special when I was a new General Class ham back in 
>1965.
> The article was in the November 1965 CQ Magazine page 11. It worked
> amazingly well for a cheap 2 element Yagi built by a 9th grader and it
> stayed up until I went to college and my parents moved.  My mom provided 
> the
> freezer foil, dad worked for an electrical contractor so I was able to 
> score
> lots of black electrical tape to wrap over the foil. I didn't use TV
> stand-offs for the elements I scrounged some ceramic stand-offs. I don't
> remember where I got the bamboo poles but since we had just built a new 
> home
> the wood needed was available. Recently I have looked for bamboo poles and
> they are not easy to find. I was thinking of seeing just how cheap I could
> reproduce it in todays dollars. Anyone wanting the .pdf on this old 
> article
 email me with "Catfish" on the subject line,  73, Ron W8RJL
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "W5GN" <w5gn at mxg.com>
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Looking for alternative sources for
> fiberglassspreaders
>
>
>> Even cheaper was the 2 el 15 meter beam using a 2x4 as the boom,
>> 1x2 by 4 feet to which was mounted bamboo fishing poles
>> wrapped with aluminum foil and a small loading coil on the
>> director.  Played magnificent (in the 1958 Sun Spots!)
>>
>> This was from CQ Magazine, I think, and called the Catfish Special
>>
>> Barry, W5GN