[Elecraft] Urban Stealth
Wes
wes_n7ws at triconet.org
Wed Jan 23 00:59:35 EST 2019
This thread brings back memories of an antenna I once used mobile for a
weekend. I was headed to a hamfest in Phoenix from Tucson back when two-meter
AM was still in vogue. Should give you and idea of time-frame. I owned a
Heathkit "Twoer" and a 1956 Corvette (wish I had this back---the car---not the
Heathkit).
In those days BC stations still used "transcription discs" that could be
obtained if you knew the right person at a station. These were 16" diameter
aluminum discs, normally covered in lacquer that when stripped yielded a
beautiful 2-meter ground plane. In the C1 Corvette the soft top was folded and
stowed under a hinged hatch behind the seats. When it was up, a couple of
toggle clamps secured the rear of the soft top, to the hatch. These clamps
created a hole in the hatch through which the vertical whip could be passed. So
the hatch could be opened, the disc placed in the storage compartment with the
whip sticking through the hatch after it was closed. All of this was fiberglass
so the antenna was mounted "in the clear" albeit pretty close to ground.
With this rig, sitting in a friend's driveway in Tempe, I was able to work
another friend back in Tucson over a path once described in QST's "World above
50 Mc" as "difficult."
Wes N7WS
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