I like this reply ... so many of us seem to be into arguing fine points which are more about pride than helping each other! Now, building something together is GREAT ! Even if there are 8 different opinions on what type of fasteners we use!! haha! Create!!
The physics ---obviously applied--is always required. It starts with how you cut-to-length your antenna, and its shape. And position. Otherwise you are just making an upside down umbrella with wire, as an artistic work. And only that. But that's the point: in the US (dunno about Canada) you have to know the basic physics to get a ham license. You may CHOOSE to forget it after you pass the test, but there is a reason we have almost 150+ questions in the test pool which are (applied) physics related--even for the TECH. Fellow HAMS chose those questions. The FCC merely implemented them into the data base. So let me ask the question--why is it OK to not know the physics, even at a simple level? Is it yucky? Is it too hard? Why should any ham be turned off by the simple basis of how our communications systems work? Why is it to be avoided? How does it wreck the fun? What is it in ham radio today that makes even the basic applied science ignorable, or worse yet, a 'spoiler' of the activity of hamming--for some, for many? I mean this in all sincerity. Please explain.
Keep it simple guys... Put as much wire up as you can And put it has high as you can But most of all have fun you might discover something better than Uda did by thinking outside the box instead of following the herd. Ps have a good rf earth most hams forget about this
Joe Taylor, K1JT and Nobel Laureate in Physics (can't say he's not educated!) uses a random length wire hung from a tree! (www.rttycontesting.com) Hey, if it's good enough for Joe, it's good enough for the rest of us dummies!
Cricket is cool! Way better than baseball. Well maybe not way better . . . but still . . . fun to watch.