> > I get a chuckle when someone tells me they are using a "homebrew dipole" > > I have to confess, as a young teen Novice my Dad and I put up a "storebought > dipole" - one of those HyGain jobs with traps for 80/40/15 meters. > Pre-Elmer, I didn't really know any better. For Christmas that year my > folks got me a Heath SWR bridge that I carefully put together - but > concluded was defective as it showed about 5:1 SWR. Even so, I made lots > of CW contacts using my Halli HT-40. > > But after I got my General and fired it up on AM fone, the going was a lot > tougher. A fella who was passing thru town offered to stop by and help > check out my antenna, and guess what? His SWR bridge read the same as mine! > With his help, the trap dipole was quickly replaced with a "real dipole" > that had a flat SWR and even my pipsqueak controlled carrier AM got out a > lot better! That was 35 years ago, and I've never bought a dipole since. > > 73, Bob W9RAN
What gets me, is that there's some one, or some company, that's commercially packaging what results in nothing more than a couple of eye-hooks screwed into some PVC, an SO-239 on the bottom, a couple of hanks of wire, and 50' of RG-58 and these "dipole kits" are selling for $80. (That's no typo, that's *EIGHTY* Dollars!) As seen at "The Ham Store" in San Antonio (another reason I won't set foot in the place). 73 = Best Regards, -Geoff/W5OMR (A fool and his money are soon partying)
