[Antennas] "Random wire"

[Wes (N7WS) and Linda]

Folks, 

I had a carefully crafted reply ready to send when this @#$%&* "super
stable" Windows XP gave me the blue screen of death. I will be briefer this
time.

To all of my quick to jump to conclusions critics, let me clarify: 

I was first licensed in 1958.  I took my Amateur Extra exam in front of the
FCC Radio Inspector and passed a 20 wpm sending and receiving CW test. 

I was employed for 33+ years in the aerospace business, primarily as an
rf/microwave design engineer.  Some of my duties included measuring
antennas both in indoor anechoic test chambers and outdoor open-air ranges.

I have personally designed and built dozens of antennas for my station,
including an array for 2 meter EME and the 20 meter beam pictured at qrz.com

I repeat: a dipole is a length of wire split into two with a transmission
line attached at the split. Period.  

The two sides do not have to be the same length, nor do they together have
to be resonant.  If an arbitrary length of wire is configured such, then it
is a *dipole*, it is not a "random wire".  Too many people believe
otherwise. For those who suggest that I hit the books and read up about
random wires, my ARRL Antenna Book does not even list "random wire" in its
index.

If you bring the end of a single wire into your shack and plug it into the
radio (or tuner) then it is an end-fed wire.  It may or may not be a random
length wire.  It might actually be resonant at the operating frequency.

Obviously, my slightly tongue-in-cheek rhetorical question went over the
heads of the vast majority of readers.  Sorry I challenged your fuzzy
thinking and made your panties get all bunched up. I was just trying to get
you to think more precisely.  Clearly a wasted effort.