Simple Ham Radio Antennas

FIELD DAY IN HILO, HAWAII The Big Island Amateur Radio Club endured rain, heat, and wind to complete another successful ARRL Field Day at Hilo's Wailoa Visitors Center. Frequent rain showers and unsafe track conditions led to the cancellation of the June Points Meet at the Hilo Drag Strip.  The closing of the track freed a few hours to enjoy the ARRL Field Day with the Big Island Amateur Radio Club.  I was only able to spend about 3 hours with club members, but I did see some interesting antennas and displays at the visitors center. When I arrived for the 0800 W start of the event, the sky was overcast with scattered showers--a perfect time to erect antennas!  By the time I got squared away, the club had erected a 40 meter vertical and a hardy cw operator starting logging in contacts on 15 meters.  The erection of the triband beam had to wait until the skies cleared and the threat of thunderstorms subsided.  While all of this was going on, the trusty vertical and a Yaesu-857

FIELD DAY ANTENNAS The ARRL's traditional Field Day Emergency Communications Exercise begins shortly.  For Amateur Radio operators in the state of Hawaii, the fun begins this Saturday at 0800W and ends Sunday at 0800W...a full 24-hours of emergency operations, a near contest atmosphere, and, most of all, outrageous fun!. This year, the Big Island Amateur Radio Club will use the grounds of the beautiful Wailoa Visitor's Center in Hilo.  The site is open to the public and is covered in case of summer rains.  Although the club will be running 2A Pacific with solar and generator power, there is commercial AC available for the evening and morning meals.  Ah yes, the food.  As was the case last year, club members will prepare something at home and bring their surprises to the center.  I'll be bringing a case or so of soda and fruit juce to keep the operators fueled throughout the long, sticky night.  Once I get through with the drag races at the Hilo Drag Strip (I'm the

AN "ALL-BAND" ANTENNA THAT REALLY WORKS The best laid plans of man and beast often go astray.  Such was the case today, when planned antenna maintenance took a back seat to heavy showers and gusty winds rolling off the Pacific Ocean.  Along the Hamakua Coast, such occurances make travel a bit hazardous and any outdoor work a study in frustration. So, with tools in hand, I returned to the ham shack for plan number 3.  Plan number 2 was doing some repairs and maintenance around the house.  Now that I'm semi-retired, I find there is sufficient time to keep the house orderly while pursuing a variety of amateur radio interests.  Once the housework was done, it was once again out to the shack for some general clean up and antenna research. One of my favorite research tools is the "Antenna Wire Classics" published by ARRL.  I'm currently paging through volume two of this outstanding series.  What I was looking for was a simple, multi-band antenna that was ea

More emergency antennas for hams: There is a wealth of wonderful and somewhat curious antenna ideas in the amateur radio library.  I have several books published by the ARRL which I 've found useful in my restricted space environment. As I was paging through "More Wire Antenna Classics, Volume 2" (Copyright 1999-2006 by the ARRL), I ran across two articles on using ordinary lamp cord for both antenna feedlines and antenna elements. "A Zip-Cord Special Antenna" on page 1-6, Chapter 1 (taken from the "QST", May 1972) describes how one ham pressed about 80-feet of ordinary lamp cord into service as both feedline and radiator for  a 75-meter  schedule he was running with some of his friends.  Apparently, this operator was on vacation and lacked some materials to maintain his contacts with  his hometown.  He found that the emergency dipole performed well in his temporary location.  He also fashioned a version for 40-meters, which he found useful on 1

ANOTHER SIMPLE ANTENNA While I was reading the 13th edition of the ARRL's "Hints and Kinks for the Radio Amateur (copyright 1992),"  I came across an interesting article by J.A. Ciciarelli, WB3DDM, on strain relief for coaxial cables.  It wasn't the excellent suggestion of using garden hose or automotive heater hose to reduce strain on the coax that caught my eye,  but rather the type of antenna he chose for his operation. Apparently, WB3DDM prefers to use long-wire antennas in the inverted -vee configuration.  According to J.A., " I feed the antennas 1/4 wavelength from one of  the leg ends so that I can use coax transmission lines (each leg is an odd multiple of a 1/4 wavelength).  Thus, the feed point is not at the apex, but along one of the sloping legs.  This arrangement frequently creates a sharp bend at the coaxial connector."  And so enters his idea of using hose to relieve some of the strain.  The process is illustrated on page 7-8 of this edit