[TowerTalk] Fan Dipole (I thought that was the discussion)

[Don W7WLL]

You can tell the ol' folks, nostalgia and 'I remember . . .' set in!!

So, being older than most. I would be willing to bet the 40M folded dipole 
may have be an Amphenol antenna? I used one in '54 and it came from an 
Amphenol kit drove it with a QRO single xtal-controlled 6L6 (think that was 
the toob) and listened on a SX-71. Still have all the xtals, wish I had my 
first HB transmitter. Has not ham radio come a long ways and yet in many 
ways it has not changed. Does seem like a lot of hams say things today on 
the air which I did my Mom would have blistered my bottom or sored up my 
knuckles. A lot of good manners seem to have been lost someplace on the way 
for a lot more than 'I remember' back then.

Opened up the legs of the 40 M part of the fan dipole and noise dropped 
perceptibly. Still have not got the two band wires up to full height (70 at 
center) yet. See some reasons to find a couple of long rods and hang the 40M 
directly under the 80 but with greater end separation than in the diagrams 
seen so far. Will use another light rope to stabilize the 40. Thanks to all 
for all of the input on their experiences, good and bad. How good the 
pudding is has yet to be determined here.

Side question - comments on the WT54G router, eliminating the offending 
cable carrying the noise by going wireless. I'd like to hear a bit more. 
Since off the tower topic you can contact me directly.

Don W7WLL

-----Original Message----- 
From: Rod Greene via TowerTalk
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2017 12:49 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com ; larryj at teleport.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fan Dipole (I thought taht was the discussion)

Can't resist adding to this one !!
I had a DX-35 and NC-98 setup in 1957 with a 40M folded dipole made with 
twin lead and fed with same at approx 25 ft. I remember working So. Africa 
one afternoon around 5pm local MST. I was amazed but that was during the 
great sunspot cycle.

Good memories - 73, Rod/w7zrc

    On Tuesday, October 3, 2017, 11:46:19 AM MDT, larryj at teleport.com 
<larryj at teleport.com> wrote:

I thought I was the only one who did that! My first antenna for my Viking 
Adventurer Novice transmitter fed 300-ohm TV twin lead going to a folded 
dipole. I stuck one wire of the twin lead in the center hole of the coax 
relay's SO-239 connector, and wrapped the other wire around the outside of 
the connector.

It's amazing that I made any contacts at all! When you're in Junior High 
School on a limited budget, you make do with what you have. Used PL-259s 
that were acquired later were unsoldered, cleaned up and resoldered many 
times over the years, used with some RG-59 coax from the local cable TV 
company!

LJ


-----Original Message-----
>From: Tom Osborne <w7why1 at gmail.com>
>Sent: Oct 2, 2017 5:33 PM
>To: towertalk at contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Fan Dipole (I thought taht was the discussion)
>
>When we were Novices, it's a wonder we made any contacts at all :-)  Back
>in '55, I was the only ham in Port Orford when I got on and had a sort of
>Elmer in W7EUG, who lived in Riverton.  He gave me my Novice and
>Conditional tests.  He had an 80 meter dipole and had it fed with that old
>'twisted pair' telephone line for a feedline.  He gave me some of it to use
>on my first antenna.
>
>I had a Heathkit AT-1 transmitter and one crystal for 7178.5.  I didn't
>have any PL-259's so I just bent one of the wires on the twisted pair
>(which was really stiff copperweld/steel wire) and poked it in the coax
>jack on the back of the AT-1.  The other wire I just taped to the outside
>of the coax jack with a piece of tape.
>
>Actually worked a WL7 one night for my first ever DX contacts.  That whet
>my appetite for more :-)  73
>Tom W7WHY
>
>