The only "ground" antenna I worked with was a 270 ft. horizontal loop made from #28 enemeled wire. It was in a pentagon shape and laying right on the ground. It loaded well with my antenna coupler thru a 1:1 homemade balun wound on a big 4" ferrite toroid form with about 12 turns trifilar wound #18 solid hookup wire. I worked quite well I thought, except the signals incoming and outgoing were down about 20 db. Even did a few QSO's on 40 and 20 meters with it QRP with the K1. NOT the most effective antenna by any means, but surely a good 'stealth' antenna for people in stuffy subdivisions with those stupid covenants! If I were going to make it a permanent installation I'd use some single conductor #14 solid insulated wire from Home Depot for protection against breakage. Any "Nosy Neighborhood Association" idiot snoop could be told it was a wire to keep dogs off your lawn, or to keep you dog in your yard with a special collar. Such an antenna would be a whole lot better than a short loaded whip or some other less desirable rigup. 73,
Sandy W5TVW ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stuart Rohre" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Ron D'Eau Claire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "elecraft" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 11:31 PM Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Underground Antennas (WAS: Ham Ingenuity) | Hee, hee. Bet you did not expect someone to report they had experience with | underwater antennas, but I have been on an experimental project to put the | Rogers "FLEX" Folded Conical Helical HF antenna on a submerged vessel. | (Written up in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation) | | Of course, it was not used while submerged. | | I also had some HF antennas on ocean buoys that wash over pretty regularly | in a high sea, so it is operated underwater part of the time. Signal drops | as you would expect. At 5 watts power, they were not going to work well | when in washover. SWR goes crazy, but they right themselves pretty quick | and that is what foldback SWR protection is for. Rig was FT 5 watter. | | -Stuart | K5KVH | | | | _______________________________________________ | Elecraft mailing list | Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net | You must be a subscriber to post to the list. | Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): | http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft | | Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm | Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com | | | | -- | No virus found in this incoming message. | Checked by AVG Free Edition. | Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.0/290 - Release Date: 3/23/2006 | | _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
