[AMRadio] The AM Window

[Geoff/W5OMR]

> > I get a chuckle when someone tells me they are using a "homebrew dipole"
>
> I have to confess, as a young teen Novice my Dad and I put up a "storebought
> dipole" - one of those HyGain jobs with traps for 80/40/15 meters.
> Pre-Elmer, I didn't really know any better.   For Christmas that year my
> folks got me a Heath SWR bridge that I carefully put together - but
> concluded was defective as it showed about 5:1 SWR.   Even so, I made lots
> of CW contacts using my Halli HT-40.
>
> But after I got my General and fired it up on AM fone, the going was a lot
> tougher.  A fella who was passing thru town offered to stop by and help
> check out my antenna, and guess what?  His SWR bridge read the same as mine!
> With his help, the trap dipole was quickly replaced with a "real dipole"
> that had a flat SWR and even my pipsqueak controlled carrier AM got out a
> lot better!    That was 35 years ago, and I've never bought a dipole since.
>
> 73, Bob W9RAN

What gets me, is that there's some one, or some company, that's commercially
packaging what results in nothing more than a couple of eye-hooks screwed into
some PVC, an SO-239 on the bottom, a couple of hanks of wire, and 50' of RG-58
and these "dipole kits" are selling for $80.  (That's no typo, that's *EIGHTY*
Dollars!)

As seen at "The Ham Store" in San Antonio (another reason I won't set foot in
the place).

73 = Best Regards,
-Geoff/W5OMR

(A fool and his money are soon partying)