[Antennas] Building antennas (now long)

[George, W5YR]

Tim, you are nibbling around the edges of Baker's Appellation Fallacy.
(Baker is my last name as QRZ.COM would tell you.)

Years ago I discovered this curious aspect of human nature, and hence of
the perception of reality, that the *name* given to something - anything -
is assumed without thought, discussion or doubt - to become the thing and
vice versa, and hence the thing assumes all the attributes that one would
associate with the name. Total nonsense, of course, but look around and see
it in action in almost all areas. Personally I have found that awareness of
this quirk of human nature has added greatly to my life in general and
helped me to avoid a number of pitfalls.

For reasons as yet unknown to me, the Appellation Fallacy seems to appear
in amateur radio most frequently and with most vigor in the antenna field.

Prime example: a piece of wire is put up and fed in the center with
ladderline and maybe a piece of coax down the way a bit. This plain Jane
hunk of wire between two trees has been named THE G5RV and in virtue of
that NAME now has all manner of magical qualitities assigned to it, whether
demonstrable or not. The Appellation Fallacy effect here is so strong that
now any such piece of wire is automatically a "G5RV" and regardless of the
details, that piece of wire now has all the attributes of the true G5RV -
such as they were, if ever.

(For the nit-pickers, I am well aware of the design issues of Varney's
antenna and of his publications, etc. His original design was intended for
a specific application which it does well; its "extended applications"
appear to have never been on his list of requirements and fall into the
category of serendipitous fortuities.)

Another example or two: Coax Dipole. Carolina Windom or anything with
Windom in the name.
Fractal Antenna. Miracle Whip. EH and CFA "attempts" at antennas. And the
list goes on and on.

Sometimes, though, the effect defeats itself by working to actually define
something with a name that is logical and confers truth about the object.
Case in point: the SCREWDRIVER antenna. Nothing about the antenna structure
and performance itself is remotely associated with a screwdriver other than
the source of motive power for tuning. Yet, the name connotes a structure
and a level of performance that is universally understood and accepted and
meaningful. Nowadays, many manufacturers offer Screwdriver antennas that
are all essentially the same configuration although some excel in
mechanical construction, etc. The name serves a useful purpose and has
meaning. Yet, no one compares the operation or performance of the antenna
to anything that a real "screwdriver" is or can do. Curious . . .

Sadly, the affliction is not limited to the antenna area of amateur radio.
Now, we have the glorious name Digital Signal Processing or DSP, about
which the average ham knows probably  less than nothing. But, *any* "DSP" 
radio, regardless of how well or how poorly it is implemented, is now a
*DSP radio* automatically possessing all the magic attributes that DSP
confers to an otherwise common little radio. (Don't take me to task here
for being uninformed in this area since I did DSP of real-world data for
years professionally and presently own and operate two "real" DSP radios.)

One more for the record: Speech Processing. This is a complex area of
scientific activity and is a serious discipline in a number of
communication fields. But, in amateur radio circles, the name assigns to
any radio advertised as having Speech Processing or Compression or any of
several other similar names all of the magical properties that Speech
Processing *can* offer when appropriately implemented. 

Sadly, the actual performance of most radios available on the market today
falls considerably short of the capabilities of a well-engineered speech
processing system. It commonly takes the guise of a simple audio or i-f
compression amplifier or soft limiter that has a noticeable effect on the
sound of the signal so that the guy on the other end can notice, usually,
when you have it turned on or off. But, how many of them actually improve
intelligibility or increase the Articulation Index or afford a
low-distortion increase of from 6 to 10 db in average power? 

Very few - so why are they in the radio? Simple: marketing needs another
"feature" to harp upon and to be comptetitive with Brand X across the
street. A few simple changes and now the new radio has a genuine
"compressor" and can be so named and magically all the benefits of Speech
Processing have been conferred upon the new product.

Sorta interesting to look back over nearly six decades of this foolishness
and see how this effect continues to manifest itself in amateur radio, not
to mention most of the rest of the world.

If I weren't so old and crotchety, and probably losing whatever mind I once
had, I would hie me to the nearest university and acquire a Ph.D. in
philosophy - Appellation Fallacy again since without the degree name I
could not possibly have any abilities - and write the definitive study on
this curious aspect of the human condition.

Watch for it and be informed and aware . . .

(Sorry for the rant/ramble this morning - just get off on this kick every
now and then. See? Even the NAME *Appellation Fallacy" has an effect on
some people . . .   <:}     )

73/72/oo, George W5YR - the Yellow Rose of Texas         
Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13qe   
Amateur Radio W5YR, in the 56th year and it just keeps getting better!
QRP-L 1373 NETXQRP 6 SOC 262 COG 8 FPQRP 404 TEN-X 11771 I-LINK 11735
Icom IC-756PRO #02121  Kachina 505 DSP  #91900556  Icom IC-765 #02437


tttt ccccc wrote:

> Perhaps having the latest "super thunder blaster limited platinum
> professional
> 
> turbo deluxe premium special deluxe extreme" antenna carries more cachet
> than
> 
> "homebrew."   It must work better, it cost more.  (Barnum's Theorem not
> 
> withstanding)
> 
> And so it goes.
> 
> 73
> 
> Tim  K3HX