What did I do wrong!!!!!

[KF7NUA]

I have been ground strapping and snap ferriteing theselast few weeks and today I noticed something I had never seen before.
Normally when I change hamsticks I switch an A-B switch to a meter and I changethe antenna, I then change freq and last switch the A-B back to the antenna.
Today I forgot to switch the A-B, hopped out and changed the antenna from a 20mto a 10m, got back into the truck and I noticed the same quso going on usingthis 10m antenna. I moved the dial around and I could still here all the trafficon 20 with the 10. I changed the freq on the radio to 40m and I could hear thetraffic on 40. I did the same thing to 15m, 17, and 10m and I could hear allthe traffic on each freq. I removed the stick and all went dead on all freq. Itis nice having a receive antenna for all freq the size of a 10m hustler antennabut I am sure there is an underlying problem I am not aware of.

What did I do wrong, is my truck now the antenna and the hamstcks are now a counterpoise

Any suggestions or help?

[WD5GWY]

I doubt that your antennas became the counterpoise. Propagation just happened to be good
enough and signal strengths strong enough that you could hear what you heard. Had you had
a resonate antenna on each of those bands the signals would have been much stronger.
Not unusual at all.
As for suggestions, that depends, are you wanting a better antenna setup? If so, my suggestion
is a good screwdriver antenna. The difference between the hamstick antennas and a good screwdriver
antenna are very noticeable.
james
WD5GWY

[KF7NUA]

Thanks, I was worried I did something wrong.
I do have a HQ 4/80 screwdiver I will get on the truck when I have time but I cannont find the time as of yet.

[K0SPN]

Why do you switch from the antenna to a meter?

[KF7NUA]

Why do you switch from the antenna to a meter?

I dont know for sure but I always thought it would be better to do so then to have no antenna connected while on freq.

[KO6WB]

Having your rig on and tuned for a certain frequency when you change antennas will not do anything to your rig. That is if you didn't manage to some how generate 50Kv of static on the antenna and then discharge it through the rig.
There is no problem having the rig tuned to the new frequency or the old one for that matter. You might want to turn the rig off while changing the antenna. That way it won't accidentally transmit while you're working on it.
What you really did wrong is to use a Hamstick when you have a perfectly good screwdriver antenna just laying around.
If you didn't have to spend the time changing antennas you would probably have the time to put the screwdriver in service.
Have fun
73
Gary

[KF7NUA]

What you really did wrong is to use a Hamstick when you have a perfectly good screwdriver antenna just laying around.
If you didn't have to spend the time changing antennas you would probably have the time to put the screwdriver in service.
Have fun
73
Gary

Well said Gary, you are right, I am getting tired of changing sticks, I guess it is time to buy a mount for the screwdriver.

[WB2WIK]

You just demonstrated that a lot of stuff works for "receiving." If you tried transmitting on other bands with the 10m Hamstick, even if you use a good tuner to try to match it, it will still suck except possibly on 12m.

I can toss a piece of wire out the window and let it lay on the ground and receive lots of signals, including many quite strong ones, on several bands. Can't actually work anybody with it, but for receiving it's pretty good.

This is why we go to great lengths to improve efficiency and match of transmitting antennas on HF. We don't go to such lengths for receiving.

[K0BG]

Steve brings up a good point.

The general senses of opinion is, that the receiver portion of a transceiver is designed to have the same impedance as the transmitter. If that is the case, it is indeed a rare occurrence! Most of the time, the receiver is a magnitude higher than the transmitter, and indeed may be two magnitudes higher (or more!), and in a couple of rare cases, somewhat lower. On a similar note, the input impedance isn't always just a resistive value. It may have a whole lot of reactance as well, albeit rare.

No one mentioned the harmonic relationship of 20 meters verses 10 meters.

The bottom line is, there is a whole lot going on than most folks realize.

[K0BG]

Steve brings up a good point.

The general senses of opinion is, that the receiver portion of a transceiver is designed to have the same impedance as the transmitter. If that is the case, it is indeed a rare occurrence! Most of the time, the receiver is a magnitude higher than the transmitter, and indeed may be two magnitudes higher (or more!), and in a couple of rare cases, somewhat lower. On a similar note, the input impedance isn't always just a resistive value. It may have a whole lot of reactance as well, albeit rare.

No one mentioned the harmonic relationship of 20 meters verses 10 meters.

The bottom line is, there is a whole lot going on than most folks realize.