[Hallicrafters] Dummy antenna for S40 alignment

[Philip Atchley]

Hi,

Guess it's time I threw in my nickel's worth here, (As Yogi used to say,
"a nickel's not worth a dime anymore").

I DO often SWL DX with vintage gear, Hallicrafters SX-71 etc.  And I DO
find that matching the antenna is often beneficial, sometimes critical
to enjoying the program as even the 250 KW powerhouses have bad
propagation days.  I'd far rather listen to Radio Australia (one of my
favorites) on 17795 KC at S2-S4 than at S0 (generous meter too), and the
tuner often makes that much difference, ESPECIALLY at 17795 where NONE
of my antennas are resonant!

AND, down at the tropical band frequencies below 5MC the tuner often
lowers the noise floor AND removes BCB spurs as it acts as a High Pass
Filter, Totally removing the BCBC band from the input to my receiver.
My "primary" low band antenna, a low slung sloper over a sheet metal
roof happens to have a "resonant point" right at 1550 KC which delivers
a POTENT BCB signal from the two locals on 1480 and 1580 KC!

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
983 Different NDB's heard to date.

http://users.mercednet.com/beaconeer/
Merced, Central California, 37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh


----- Original Message ----- 

> Does all this REALLY matter?  So what if there's a few db lost in Rx
> antenna matching.  You're not gonna use your S-53A for meteor shower
> work on six meters anyway.  Same for serious DXing or (heaven forbid)
> contesting. Even -10 db is only a couple S units.  If you are an SWL
> and your boatanchor radio is your only ears to the world, then fine,
> use a tuner.  I doubt if any of us depend on vintage equipment these
> days for "serious" weak signal work, so I just don't see all this
> receive antenna matching as being worth the trouble.  However, I do
> agree with the concept for initial alignment purposes.

<SNIPPED irrelevant material>

> 73' Charlie k3ICH