[Elecraft] OT: Long loop antennas

[DAVID C. OLEAN]

Vic, Ron et al,
I was a captain in the Signal Corps many many years ago in the 60's,  and
had to bring a mission critical piece of Collins HF SSB gear to the big Army
Depot in Pirmasens, Germany. I brought it in my little VW and hand carried
it into the depot.  The Depot manager was a German and I noted that all the
electronic techs were Germans in white smocks. (The GIs were there to change
lightbulbs and sweep the floors!)
    Well they didn't see a captain bring in an ssb radio every day, (It was
a variant of the 618T and a great piece of ham gear) so I got a tour of the
place from the Depot manager. We finally got to a huge expandable van with
twin 20 KW CW AM FSK transmitters inside. Two huge globe insulators on the
van had some monstrous ladder line running up through the roof about 40-50
ft overhead. There were several R-390s in the van. I noted that they were
all tuned to ham bands . When I saw 14.205 on the R-390, I was suspicious,
and asked the guy if he was a ham. Yes he was and he told me about their
rhombic pointed toward Washington DC that this 20 KW rig was connected to.
He got great joy in describing the incredible signal reports that rhombic
got on several ham bands in the USA with that 20 KW Collins rig. His smile
filled his face!   When he heard that I was a ham, I was his best buddy.
    So here we are years later running K2s at 5 watts and having gobs of fun
too. All these rhombic stories jogged my memory.

73
Dave K1WHS

Vic Rosenthal wrote:

> Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
>
> > But it's real beauty is in the gain and, due to it's sheer size the
> > resistance to QSB and non-critical dimensions. The performance of the
> > rhombic has earned it the nick-name "King of Antennas".
>
> Rhombics have lots of history and folklore associated with them.  The
> great W6AM had an enourmous collection of rhombics overlooking the
> Pacific (see <http://home.swipnet.se/dx/porthole/w6am1.htm>).
>
> Just the idea of a rhombic is powerful.  An Israeli friend of mine whose
> call will not be mentioned told me this story:  he was working at the
> Israeli coastal station 4XO near Herzeliya, and early one morning he
> decided to put a 10 KW transmitter on 40 meters to see what he could
> work.  Needless to say, the US hams he contacted didn't believe at first
> that he was actually in Israel, given that he was pinning their s-meters
> on 40 in the middle of the afternoon!  But they were convinced when he
> told them that the antenna was a rhombic.
>
> --
> 73,
> Vic, K2VCO
> Fresno CA
> http://www.qsl.net/k2vco
>
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