[Hallicrafters] 40 m antenna used on 80 m - what to expect?

[Paul]

Jeez Mike,

You seem to be hung up on "if it ain't perfect, it
ain't gonna work".

The rest of us are saying "we know it ain't perfect,
but it does work to some extent".

Yes, I know about antennas, impedance, co-ax vs open
line etc. And yes I have all the manuals, many going
back the 30's and 40's (like the original Radio
Handbook's, these were my dad's who had been into ham
radio since the late 1930's) so I have a wealth of
reference material. 

Did we use this configuration at home? Of course not!
At home we had the resources to do it properly. You
apparently checked me out on a license database since
you called me Paul, which is my given name but on the
ham bands I use Ray. Check out my station on my
website via qrz.com and you'll see my home station
that uses the proper "tuners" etc.

> 
> Paul, I wonder if your operating awards on the wall
> include the WATV certificate?  (Worked All
> TeleVisions)  How close is your nearest neighbor?
> 

What part of "summer cottage" did you not understand?
We were not using this configuration from our home! We
had neighbors, sure. There must have been at least
half a dozen cottages scattered over the island. But
this was the late 1950's and very early 1960's. I
don't think anyone had a television on the island, it
was probably 10-15 miles to the nearest place that
might have had a TV to watch the one or two channels
that they might have picked up. Back then we weren't
hung up on TV like everyone is today.

You have to take into account our conditions. We
originally set up the 80 meter dipole just to be able
to use ham radio for fun on vacation and planned to
stay on 80/75. But then when the band was dead and the
weather was crappy we started to experiment with the
other bands to see what could be done. We started
seeing contacts from all over the US and decided why
not try for WAS from the cottage? The antenna was
working fine so we decided, why change it? Never made
WAS on 80, but to our suprise, 40 and 20 were doing
OK. Never made WAS on 15 either and didn't really do
much hamming on 10 at all. But after about 3 years we
made WAS on 20 and a couple years later on 40.

Stereo's and acid rock? I was brought up on artists
like Perry Como, Nat King Cole, The McGuire Sisters,
Patti Page and Jo Stafford although I did listen
occasionally to that young upstart Elvis the Pelvis.
So I guess we are from different eras, or brought up
differently.

As for my french fried output filter and melted final
tank coil, I just went down in the shack and took my
DX-60 apart to see what it looks like. I don't think
the top has been off the final in 30 years, if at all,
and I KNOW the output filter has never been uncovered
since I originally built it, in 1960. The DX-60
replaced, in 1961, the AT-1 we had originally started
with at the cottage. 

Anyway, to see the damage to my "poor long suffering
DX-60", you can check out: 

http://www.w2ec.com/DX-60_Final.jpg
and
http://www.w2ec.com/DX-60_Output_Filter.jpg

Yup, those parts sure do look fried and twisted to
here and back!

Sorry, can't check the Dow-Key relay points, that's
been moved on to other projects years ago and I
wouldn't have any idea which one was the original used
at the cottage.

73,
Ray W2EC

--- Mike Everette <radiocompass at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Well,  I once loaded up a metal bunk bed frame and
> springs in a college dorm room and worked some QSOs
> 
> Betcha if you open up the output filter in your poor
> long suffering DX-60, you'll find every capacitor in
> it has long since been french-fried, the coils are
> discolored or misshapen... and if you open up that
> Dow-Key relay, the contacts are pitted and the
> tongue blued.
> 

=== message truncated ===