[Boatanchors] FT-101

[Richard W. Solomon]

One time I forgot I had left the antenna switch on the dummy load.
I wondered why the band was so quiet. The only station I could hear
and work (57 both ways) was a chap in EI land.
Heath Cantennas were great loads and passable radiators.

73, Dick, W1KSZ

-----Original Message-----
>From: Glen Zook <gzook at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Sep 3, 2008 11:35 AM
>To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net, Barrie Smith <barrie at centric.net>
>Subject: Re: [Boatanchors] FT-101
>
>Unfortunately, a light bulb usually will not present any where near a 50 ohm load.  Now when transmitters could load a "wet noodle" they worked OK.  But, when the transmitters started going to a fixed output impedance light bulbs just did not work very well.
>
>Also, a light bulb does not make for a non-radiating load.  Frankly, they can make a fair antenna.  Back around 1960 there was a group of us who got on 7290 kHz every afternoon after school.  One day the group decided to see just who could work the farthest on the worst antenna.  The "prize" went to a fellow who loaded up a light bulb in his basement (he lived on the north side of Detroit) who got a "57" from another of the group who was located in St. Louis, Missouri.  There also was a fellow in the mid west who worked DXCC using a light bulb!
>
>When I was in high school (this was like in 1961) I built a homebrew 2-meter AM transmitter using a 2E26 in the final.  Frankly, I didn't have a whole lot of money at the time so I omitted the plate meter and to tune up I used a pilot lamp soldered into a PL-259.  I just tuned for maximum brilliance and then unscrewed the dummy load and attached the coax to my 10 element yagi.  My shack was in the basement of my parent's house in northwestern Indiana.  Whenever I tuned up amateur radio operators for several miles around knew that I was getting ready to transmit because they could copy my signal radiating from the pilot lamp.
>
>Nowadays I have a Bird 6154 dummy load / wattmeter that is rated for 150 watts continuous as well as a Heath Cantenna with transformer oil.
>
>Glen, K9STH
>
>Website:  http://k9sth.com
>
>
>--- On Wed, 9/3/08, Barrie Smith <barrie at centric.net> wrote:
>
>From: Barrie Smith <barrie at centric.net>
>
>I do have a good dummy load, but it's just 60 watts. 
>Use it mostly for setting-up 432 and 1296 transverters, and such.
> 
>What's wrong with a light bulb?  That's what most of us used back in the 1950s.
>
>
>      
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