[Elecraft] Any benefits to a Long "Long Wire"

[Jim Campbell]

Back in the '50s when I worked for the FCC out of the Atlanta office, I
once visited the monitoring station at Powder Springs, GA.  I didn't
see, but was told of an antenna field that they had there made up of
many Beverage antennas.  They were multiple wavelength long at broadcast
frequencies.  I was told that they could pick out a low-power BC station
located only a few degrees azmuth away from a much stronger station on
the same frequency.  That must have been some antenna farm.  It may
still be there for all I know.  The thing that makes a Beverage antenna
different from a long wire antenna is that the Beverage is terminated
with a resistor whose value is the characteristic impedance of the
antenna.  This makes it unidirectional.

The antenna that blew my socks off at the time of the visit was the
Adcock.  It was the antenna that they used for DF work. The DF operator
would turn a dial on his console and the Adcock would follow his
slightest movement.  A sight to see.  It looks like an upright "H" with
the pivot in the middle of the crossbar.  It was also impressive to see
the knowledge the DF operator had of the band.  As he tuned the band, I
could ask him about a particular signal and he would readily identify
who and where it was.  If he found something new, he would call in the
other monitoring stations and they would triangulate on it.  Soon it
would be identified as well.

72/73,

Jim
W4BQP