HR2.0 - Ham Radio Antennas | Base Station Antennas - What Do The YouTubers Use? YTB #19

Built my own dipoles and talk around the world.

 

Just because someone is on YouTube posting content ALSO does NOT mean that they do not know anything.

YouTube is not an automatic disqualifier.

 

I can almost see a huckster screaming, "AS SEEN ON YOUTUBE!"...

 

I keep the XYL happy by keeping my HF antenna low key and virtually invisible. It is a random length, end fed wire coming from the corner of the deck to a tree about 60 feet away. The wire then goes vertically down to the feed point, which is simply connected to the center conductor of a coax going back to the shack. The shield of the coax is tied to a ground rod at the feed point. By shear dumb luck the internal tuner on my TS-440SAT will make the radio happy on 20 meters and below and needs some help from an external tuner for 15 and 10 meters (probably 12 and 17 meters, as well). I finished DXCC with it a number of years ago, so I know it "works". I've got a Cushcraft R7 that I've had for over 25 years, but it hasn't been up in over 24 years as the wire keeps my XYL happy. I really need to put it back up some time and see how it compares.

For 2 meters I've got a J pole hanging from the underside of the deck and a 3 element Yagi pointed north for 2 meter SSB (also mounted under the deck). Ideal? No. Do they work? Sort of. Are they low visibility? You bet.

As is the case with anything else in engineering, it's a trade-off.

 

A "You Tuber" uses a Wi-Fi antenna to connect to the internet............no ham radio involved.

 

Remember when amateur radio sites used to have actual articles to read instead of a bunch of videos?

 

I'm a lucky guy. My XYL always says: "a man needs a hobby" and couldn't care less if a wire would hang right in front of the window. And so it does, end-fed sloping down from the shack at the 4th floor, passing the bedroom window on the 3rd floor, the living room windows on the 2nd, ending on the shed at kitchen level, then making a sharp right-hand turn continuing to the neighbours' shed
(yes, I have good neighbour too!)

By the way, I started out with a delta loop (20 x 20 x 20 ft), using neigbours' sheds on both sides but the other neighbours' wife was of a different kind...

 

Well, my wife has said that the hobby is better than wine, women and song, but not less expensive.

Tom
AB1NS

 

Not even videos with actual information. Their are several hams producing informative and instructional videos but you never see them here. Instead we are bombarded by supposed entertainment videos and many contain outright factually inaccurate information. It's a race to the bottom now. Chances are that voicing such opinions will get the thread wiped as it has so many times before. It's a sorry state of affairs for QRZ these days.

 

I knew a fellow that used his
rain gutters at times and also
loaded up his cattle fences -
said they worked good .
He did lots of antenna experiments
during the 70’s , I was lucky to
help and learn from Jim, he lived
in Lexington Mi. We built many wire
yagi’s -40-80-160 mtrs. LW directional
ants. he called them Ariel’s ,we built
many different matching circuits.

 

Exactly. You have to browse thru the various "forums" to find the REALLY useful posts, like upcoming DXpeditions, special event stations, or other timely topics of interest to the majority of hams. There are some good posts that are featured on the Zed home page, but there's a lot of lame, narrow interest stuff that could be replaced with better material that would have a much wider audience.

 

That's the secret to making Qs using a compromised radiator. Run super narrow digi modes..Look at what you can achieve using a 5.9 Hz wide WSPR signal. Or, JT9 @17Hz wide etc.. 73, n6spp

 

You make it sound like they were a flash in the pan. They started in 1921. The reason they "didn't last" wasn't because they were selling junk.

 

I fondly remember "Rip Shack" from when I was a young ham. I was ogling a DX-100 short wave radio and was asking the guy about it, it was $99.99. I almost had enough money saved. The guy at the counter knew what I wanted it for, and that I was a budding young ham wannabe (I was 12). He very kindly told me that I would be better off getting something else to listen to the ham bands and Radio Moscow, etc. My parents ended up buying me an old Hallicrafters SX-100 for Christmas that year. It was 10 times the receiver that that POS at Rip Shack was.

However, I spent a lot of money there. It was the only game in town, and when you needed a diode or a PL-259, well, you could get one there. It'd cost you, but that was the price of convenience. The TRS-80 was a serious computer for the time, and I had some old Realistic stereo equipment that was pretty decent. I always rooted for them to succeed. Where else could a kid go to look at electronics he couldn't afford? The place even had a unique smell to it, wherever you went. And everywhere you went, there was a Radio Shack.

It's no surprise they went belly up, but it's amazing they lasted as long as they did.

 

Your experience mimics mine...only difference for me was that I went there to ogle the Tandy line of computers. I had a mild interest in radios, but the micro computers were what captured my interest.

I grew up in a small town in Mississippi. It was the only place I could put my hands on a computer outside of some school classes. I miss that time, a little. Online shopping is definitely better for niche gear like Ham equipment, but there is no substitute for the visceral feeling (smells, sounds, etc.) of walking into one of the old electronics stores.