Good points in most cases on this subject except for the word "works". My
friend Alan, K0BG, insists this word is actually an acronym which I have
used in dozens of presentations: " WithOut Real Knowledge". This means
someone made one or more contacts (anecdotes) so this antenna "works." I
have used numerous antennas that "work". But, let's say on 40m, the big
beam at 145 ft. at VY2TT outperformed anything else I have ever used!
We demonstrated the difference between effective and far less effective
antennas during FD this year, in spite of S9+ noise on RX. Our A4 (3L on
20m and 15m) and 40m dipole at 40 ft. helped us make more contacts, often
four-to-five times as many, thAn other local FD groups, even the ones who
ran more rigs than we (single HF rig).
Also, my 40m dipole at 40 ft. works much better than many of the other local
antennas that "work." Read W8JI's perspective on an OCF dipole and note he
recommends an 80/20% split with a CURRENT BALUN. I use an end-fed wire with
a 9:1 transformer and counterpoise for SOTA when atop a mountain. When
others use a similar antenna at home, they often create RFI in their own
shacks, frequently distorting their SSB signals.
On the occasion when those antennas "work," they get great reports
("S7--great signal") in spite of 50% distortion. Another op in the same
town with a half-wave, center-fed dipole is likely much stronger with no RFI
in the audio. The problem--too few ops look into what's going on, give
accurate signal reports, or compare their shiny (short and pretty) antennas
against a dipole.
Yes, I've made HF contacts with a light bulb and yes there is a light bulb
contest on the horizon. But, I used my OCF and center-fed fan dipoles at 40
ft. to work VP6D on 160m-10m (excluding 60m), something which I likely would
not have done with my 33 ft. end-fed SOTA antenna.
73, Bill, K8TE
--
Sent from: http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/
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