[ARC5] [Milsurplus] Horizontal loop on German vehicles

[jphutch60bj]

There was a sight in New Jersey to ELINT, is that the proper term ?,  on 
Rommel;   its in the history books some where.

On 9/20/2021 9:48 PM, Gene Smar via ARC5 wrote:
> Gents:
>
>      Thanks for your many suggestions where to find source material 
> for my original question:  Did US Hams intercept ca. 30 Mc comms from 
> Erwin Rommel's forces in the African campaign in the early 40s?  I now 
> have a few hints at sources that I must track down.
>
>      As for NVIS as a possible transmission mode for Rommel's forces 
> (yet another subject stirred up by my original email), if his armor 
> units relied on ca. 30 Mc radio equipment as I've read, it is not 
> likely that such transmissions were heard via NVIS in the States. 
> First of all, the freq is too high; my earlier sources on NVIS 
> transmission tell that NVIS propagation cannot be supported above the 
> 10-12 Mc range.  Secondly, NVIS mode provides somewhat reliable 
> communications out to under 500 kM from the transmitter, not far 
> enough to be heard along the US east coast.
>
>      I had read elsewhere that the "cage" seen above command cars in 
> Afrikakorps photos was not an NVIS antenna but, as others have said 
> here, a top loading capacitive cap for a short vertical radiating 
> element.  I believe that such an antenna could have been used 
> successfully for close-in ground wave transmissions, such as on a tank 
> battlefield, with, as Hue suggests, the 30WS HF transmitter.
>
>      However, Fiedler, in his 1996 book "Near Vertical Incidence 
> Skywave Communication - Theory, Techniques and Validation", discusses 
> the Soviet Union's mechanized units as using "zenith radiation", their 
> term for NVIS, to maintain comms over large swaths of territory.  He 
> includes a photo of a Soviet BTR-60 (to me it looks like four-axled 
> armored troop carrier) with a "railing-like antenna array" on the 
> horizontal top surface.  He claims this photo supports other 
> Soviet-era documentation that suggests, "Ionospheric communication ... 
> during brief stops at distances up to 200-300 km is conducted using 
> Zenith radiating ... antennas arranged on top of the operating vehicle."
>
> BOTTOM LINE:  NVIS for Rommel not likely; for former Soviets, probably.
>
> 73 de
> Gene Smar  AD3F
>
>
> On 9/20/2021 1:13 PM, David Stinson wrote:
>> Hue is correct.
>> The "loop" is not a loop at all.  It is "capacitive top-loading"
>> for an electrically-short vertical element.  This is a field I know
>> a good deal about.  It will surprise some
>> just how well one can communicate with even this tiny bit
>> of radiation resistance, especially over ground-wave distances.
>> I wonder how many tank drivers got RF burns on the tops
>> of their heads, LOL.
>> 73 Dave AB5S
>>
>> On 9/20/2021 8:11 AM, CL in NC via Milsurplus wrote:
>>> In reference to the post about military DX during WW II, the July 
>>> 1968 QST has  an article about a mobile horizontal loop made out of 
>>> gutter down  spot called the 'MABAL'.  Just several years ago the 
>>> same author wrote another article called the 'MABAV'.  They were 
>>> both broad band tuneable horizontal loops mounted above the roof of 
>>> his car. Perhaps an offshoot of what the Germans had.
>>>
>>> Charlie, W4MEC in NC
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>
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