It's important that 'OM's' not be misled one way or the other. Your 8 foot high horizontal antenna system on flat ground is a NVIS antenna, with little gain at low angles. Typically the gain values as you approach the horizon would be down 20-30 dB from the peak gain( which would happen around or at the zenith). However, in situations where there is a falloff of ground, such as near or at the peak of a mountain or hill, the power pattern of your 8 foot horizontal antennma will distort and allow moderate gain (relative to the peak) at low launch angles, which is where the DX is.
Like being called a Boomer to your face? Boomer - pejorative : insulting, disapproving, or suggesting that something is not good or is of no importance. Cuts both ways BTW.
Doc Gmelin, the late W6ZRJ, postulate #741: "An antenna... is better than NO antenna!!!" Seriously, Ron, NU6F, who has hiked the trail for 1-2 weeks at a time up and down the Sierra Nevadas, reports great success (on several occasions) with a QRP rig and a wire draped over a granite cliff. Apparently, granite is a pretty fair insulator and tends not to absorb RF!!
Antennas are real simple, it's a matter of math and physics. Also someone should explain the definition of "it works".... .. RF Efficiency, is a proven science. Some of these experiments just prove that the band conditions, are finely extremely good. It's been a long wait, through the past solar minimum. Everyone can now have fun! 73 from, The K0UO " Rhombic Antenna Farm" miles of wire in the Air & On the AIR daily
A SK pal of mine once told me, "It's not how well you think your antenna works during the high part of the cycle, but how it actually works during the rest of the cycle."
If he threw his wire into the trees, he wouldn't have been able to knock the OMs on QRZ. If he knew as much as he thinks he does, he wouldn't even to ask anybody if it would work. I guess 3 years as a ham makes him an expert now.
I have made 7600 contacts in over 190 countries with 100 watts and an antenna in my attic, since march 4. I know I worked at least one station with a similar antenna. He is about 5 miles away. I am guessing that most of the station's antennas did the heavy lifting for me, and for him as well.
Tim, you practiced one of the best aspects of this hobby and that is (well quoting from an old Nike ad) "just do it!" And if it works GREAT, if not try something else. That's always been my approach and it ultimately works and has led to some good things. Keep it up! I've been at it for 45 years and no sign of me stopping!
Last week my inverted L for 160m broke off at the feedpoint in a storm. I noticed the SWR was a little high when I was making a few FT8 contacts, so I stopped. Seems my radial field emitted enough RF to work about 400 miles away. Go figure.
Everything works to a degree, I have made contacts with a light bulb for an antenna. With antennas the perfect is the enemy of the good. Obviously a low antenna like that will tend to radiate a lot of energy in the wrong directions but sure it will still make contacts. The important thing to keep in mind is that difference between the very best to worst antenna any of us can get in the air, is but a fraction of what the propagation path variations are. Anyone that says any antenna won't work is foolish, but anyone that says any antenna is best is equally foolish.
Who were the "OMs" on The Zed that said it would not work? FYI, I didn't watch your video... I agree with the majority here, in that the title is slightly aggressive and offensive. But hey, have fun OTA. "I dub thee, Generation Duh..."
you know.... a few years ago I posted my portable antenna here on the ZED, and a whole host of folks told me why it wouldn't work even though the results I was getting proved otherwise. Based on published data, it was a solid design, and was / IS very effective.... but the collective nay-sayers all had pet reasons why it wouldn't work. Most of them revolved around the fact that it was close to the ground, and wasn't a wire dipole. "A wire antenna 32ft in the air is the only REAL Ham Antenna" and other such nonsense was the most common reply along with miscalculated / misquoted ideas about efficiency. And of course there were all sorts of comments advocating that I use their pet antenna designs, and quotes from non-scientific articles taken out of context. It was at that point that I realized that much of the antenna wisdom being put out here was either folklore, personal ideas, or misapplied theories based on different conditions.... and only a small portion was actually usable. SO I quit posting my antenna designs and results. Interestingly, since that time my portable antenna design has been used very successfully on a number of expeditions, trips, and so forth. This last spring we had a DXpedtion field test.... and using that antenna we made QSOs with Bulgaria, Spain, and England using 5watts on SSB, and then a few days later hit Australia and Japan, again on 5 watts SSB. AND I use it regularly to join in a QRP rag-chew with folks in England. It never ceases to amaze me how effective an antenna that was declared to be virtually useless by the nay-sayers can actually be!
