[Milsurplus] Little off-topic : glass insulators for radio antenna use?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 12/5/06, Mike Davidsen <mike_davidsen at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Am I
> missing something?  Why don't more hammers use these
> great insulators (they are heavy, and pretty!) for
> more utilitarian purposes than sitting on the mantle
> because the wifey thinks it looks pretty?

Precisely for the reasons you state, Mike: they're 'pretty' heavy.
also quite specialized in their design, to be mounted on a pole peg
with cable brought along past it and held in place by a retaining
wire. Not a lot of hams use antenna systems with such heavy duty
requirements, or even the need for such. Try to imagine how you'd get
these things attached to a wire antenna and up in the air, muchless
fastened to something.

Most of the ones you see sell at hamfests are probably the egg or
strain type, sometimes the older eyelet versions used on battery
receiving sets and so on. Also feed-thru insulators, stand offs for
building or running open wire line.

One place the smaller types could be useful is a beverage antenna. But
with electric fence insulators so cheap and easy to use, they'd still
be overkill and more work than they'd be worth. Another thing to keep
in mind is what good targets they make if you hang them up like a
fence out in the woods.

I've seen them used as candle holders, nightlights, paperweights, and
so on. My older brother got me into collecting them as a kid and my
collection is somewhere around 100 different types from large to
small, green to carnival glass or blue ceramic. They have more utility
as decorative artifacts to me than any practical use. The big ones
(10-20 lbs) make good door stops. Some of the rarer examples, like
keys or radios or anything else, actually have value to collectors.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ