Dave You read something into my post that was neither there nor intended. This highlights one of the oddities of emails: you can't write them to fit all audiences.
David G3UNA > On 01 August 2020 at 20:12 David Gilbert <ab7e...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > For what it may be worth, I'm a staunch supporter of antenna tuners > myself. I previously used one for many years to get 5 band operation > out of two vertical pieces of tubing on my roof back when I lived in > Scottsdale, and I just built a high power monster to get full coverage > of the low bands with my current antennas here in the boonies. I'm > definitely not one of those who think that antennas need to be resonant > to be any good. > > Antenna tuners can indeed be lossy, but with the right components they > don't have to be, and if they are lossy enough to significantly affect > your signal most of them will burn up first. TLW, the free app that > comes with the ARRL Antenna Book, is quite informative on that score. > > My gripe with the original post from G3UNA was simply his generalization > that resonant antennas are bad and that non-resonant antennas are good. > > 73, > Dave AB7E > > > > On 8/1/2020 11:21 AM, Al Lorona wrote: > > I'm glad Dave added that to the end of his message, because each time the > > topic of multiband antennas comes up, we are told, "That's too lofty a goal > > for one antenna. Just put up a resonant antenna and all your troubles will > > be gone." All except for the problem of operating on all bands without > > having to put up 9 resonant HF antennas, that is. I think we do a > > disservice to the hundreds of hams reading this by discouraging them from > > multiband operation just because we deem it too "noisy" or "lossy" or > > "inconvenient" or whatever. > > > > If a man or woman, knowing full well the consequences of his or her > > actions, chooses to utilize a single, horizontal antenna of no particular > > length, ultra-low-loss feedline long enough to reach the shack, and a > > low-loss homebrew or commercial manual antenna tuner to operate on all > > bands, then who are we to tell him or her that they shouldn't? To do so has > > always struck me as presumptuous. > > > > Incidentally, can we do two things? Can we all get over the gross > > assumption that we continue to make, that when someone mentions feeding an > > antenna with "balanced line" that must mean Wireman #553? There are better > > alternatives. If our beef is with Wireman #553, then let's be on with it > > without condemning *all* forms of balanced line. > > > > Secondly, antenna tuners are not necessarily lossier than the aggregate of > > cables, connectors, wattmeters, filters, switches, elbows, lightning > > arrestors, baluns, autotuners, &c., &c., that many folks use. Everything > > has loss, but in effect we trade that loss for some other valuable > > function... like being able to QSY anwhere, easily. To give you a data > > point, on 12 meters my station has a max loss (from transmitter to the > > antenna feedpoint) of 1.6 dB. I'll put that worst-case number up against > > anybody's long run of coax through all the other junk from their > > transmitter to their antenna. > > > > Folks, you should not feel inferior for having chosen to operate on many > > bands with an antenna tuner. I think the case could be made that the > > *resonant* antenna is the compromise, giving up all band operation for some > > other desired function. And sadly, sometimes that compromise is made just > > so they can say that they're not using a tuner! > > > > Al W6LX > > > > > >>>> Multi-band antennas are fine as long as you recognize that they are a > >>>> compromise. > >>>> Dave AB7E > > ______________________________________________________________ > > Elecraft mailing list > > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > Message delivered to ab7e...@gmail.com > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to d.cut...@ntlworld.com ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
