[Antennas] Dipole vs random wire

[A10382]

I do have a 200' (approx) wire, outdoors, used for SWL.  It's a length of
insulted 16ga strung through the first branch stub on a few tall pine
trees - so it stays out of the needle growth which does not start until
about the 50' level.  It's at about 30' up (varies from approx. 25-35').  At
one time, I did use it for 80/75 & 160 Tx with mixed results. It did work
well on 80/75 without a tuner, but not as well as a simple dipole on 160
(both my tuners are 80-10M).

This outdoor long wire is down right now (ahhh.. winter ice storms ....) and
is temporarily being replaced by a true random wire snaked around my attic.
"True random" -- as I do not know how long it actually is - somewhere
between 100 and 150' ??.  It does work well for SWL, but I'm not using it
for any Tx.

I've used verry long wires as antennas quite a few years ago.  In late 1990,
while in the Middle east, I  had 1500 and 2000' wires laid right on the
ground.  It was covered with a very light coating of dirt (less than 1" --
and you can't call what they have there really sand.. it's real dirty and
was verrrry dry).  It worked very well for SWL and pretty good for 160/80
and fair on 40 with a tuner.  The low height was probably the limiting
factor on 40.   I'm sorry that our 'work' conditions did not allow any time
for any regimented studies.. just rolled it out until the end of the spool.

There is a point in a long wire's length where the wire's resistance
overcomes any additional signal it's capturing.  Folks who link together
miles of barbed wire as SWL antennas may be able to attest to this.  In
addition to frequency, I believe it has a lot to do with how large the wire
itself is.  The larger the wire diameter, the lower the resistance and the
larger conductor surface area captures more signal.
================

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean P Doran" <w8okn@juno.com>
To: <Antennas@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 8:01 AM
Subject: [Antennas] Dipole vs random wire
>
> How many of you are using random wires?  If so, how does it compare to
> your dipole?  I'm not asking about theory, I am asking about your
> experience.
>


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.445 / Virus Database: 250 - Release Date: 1/21/2003