[Elecraft] [KX3] Re: Can't believe my Chameleon Antenna!

[Fred Jensen]

On 11/21/2012 11:01 AM, Edward R Cole wrote:
> A cheap version of this antenna is a 100w incandescent light bulb with a
> few feed of "lamp cord" with a PL-259 attached.  If you can load it, it
> makes a cheap dummy load that leaks RF.  What I used as a Novice in the
> 1960's.  I actually made some 40m contacts with the "light bulb" antenna
> over several hundred miles with 75w from my DX-35.

Tom, N6BT, of Force12 fame, often concludes his presentations with a 
tour of his "Illuminator" antenna ... a light bulb in a porcelain socket 
mounted on a fence post and fed with a short piece of coax with a 
current choke at the lamp.  He claims to have worked all continents with 
it.  He then expanded it to a "phased array" with three bulbs arranged 
in a Vee, "for additional gain." :-)

While on the subject of "too good to be true" antennas, for many years, 
the US military used very large, physically impressive, HF log-periodic 
beams.  The first one I saw was in 1963 on the roof of the WW2 hangar at 
Galena AFS in the northern interior of AK, for the MARS station.  They 
had around 15 or so elements on a lattice boom, and I remember thinking, 
"Wow!  That sucker should really radiate."  A lot have disappeared 
[satellite comm?], but you'll occasionally see one at a Natl Guard 
armory.  Basically, 3-30 MHz with low SWR.

I was truly disappointed when I discovered it offered maybe 3-4 dB gain 
on any given frequency.  The tribander on the same roof for the ham 
station [KL7FBK] out-performed it by a significant margin.

73,

Fred K6DGW