[Elecraft] OT: light bulb antenna

[wayne burdick]

Jack,

I once worked Illinois from California on 15 meters using a 60-W light 
bulb fed with three feet of zipcord. At that time (age 13) my shack was 
a 4' x 5' pool-equipment closet in the garage. The bulb was mounted on 
a shelf, pulling the zip cord straight up and taut -- a "short 
vertical."

The rig was a Heath DX20. What I wouldn't have given for a K3 :)

73,
Wayne
N6KR


On Jun 7, 2009, at 10:55 AM, Jack Smith wrote:

> In the days of vacuum tube transmitters, we commonly used a 100 watt
> incandescent light bulb as a dummy load. It has the advantage of giving
> an immediate indication of output power. And, because the usual
> arrangement was to use a few feet of zip cord between the transmitter
> and bulb, one could easily work a couple miles with the "dummy" antenna

> ---

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