Al, A very refreshing perspective. Thank you!
'73 de JIM N2ZZ -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Al Lorona Sent: Saturday, August 01, 2020 2:22 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] New antenna works! 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 jboehne...@yahoo.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
