[Elecraft] Wow, antennas really do matter

[Roland & Elvie Whitsitt]

What's that saying?

"A good antenna can over come a bad rig.
But a good rig can't over come a bad antenna".
n5vwn
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Kantarjiev" <cak at dimebank.com>
To: <qrp-l at mailman.qth.net>
Cc: <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2006 8:33 AM
Subject: [Elecraft] Wow, antennas really do matter


> 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
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