[Hallicrafters] Re: Hallicrafters Digest, Vol 57, Issue 5

[TC Dailey]

I'd agree with Ray.  I too, played with commo gear in Uncle Samuel's Canoe 
Club, and over the years have formulated an axiom for antennas -

"There's ARRL perfect - then there's real life"

At K6NCG (Naval Schools Command, Treasure Island (SFRAN), CA) - now closed - 
one weekend in 1962, we carefully lowered the beam from the tower, cleaned 
all the joints, polished them, then did all the right stuff to make sure it 
would last another few years, and re-erected it.  All went well, until our 
Sunday evening sched with KC4USN (Antartica), when it began to rain - slowly 
but surely, the SWR climbed higher and higher, until it wouldn't work 
anymore - one of the fellows got the binoculars and espied that we'd put the 
beggar up UPSIDE-DOWN, so those cute little drain holes allowed the traps to 
fill with rainwater.  What to do?  I can still recall that some of the guys 
found an 18 1/2 foot piece of pipe (should have been 16'4" for 14.292), 
stuck it on top of a Coke bottle (great insulators), leaned it over on the 
2x4 railing of the "widow's walk" on top of the building, and fed it with 
some coax that LOOKED like RG-8.  We got reports of 20 dB over S9, and ran 
all the patches.  When the rain stopped, so did the "antenna".

like I said, above.  I agree with Ray.

Tom
WØEAJ