[Elecraft] Wow, antennas really do matter

[Chris Kantarjiev]

I've been making do with a really lousy doublet made of 24g zip
cord at my home QTH for the few months I've had my general. I've
made some contacts, but not gotten very far - 3W to Seattle from
Palo Alto isn't going to impress anyone on this list (though making
any contacts at all puts me in an elite portion of humanity, I
realize :-)

Leigh WA5ZNU convinced me to build a PAC-12 antenna early on, but
I never had much luck with it. It doesn't work in my back yard
at all... I brought it to our cabin a couple of times and couldn't
figure out what I was doing wrong. I could hear "OK", but no one
could hear me.

I spent some time with it and an analyzer and learned a big lesson:
that center section with the feedpoint is not symmetrical. It
matters a lot that you send the signal up into the whip, not down
into the ground. Jeez. 

Last night I played with the Flying Piggies and my might KX1 sent
its signal all the way to Oklahoma City. Got 339 ... more work is
needed before I can contemplate WAS, but it's definitely encouraging!

Oink oink :-)

73 de chris K6DBG