[QCWA] First Antenna

[John]

On 3/9/2013 11:00 AM, qcwa-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:
> What was your first antenna?
When I started studying for the Novice I didn't know any hams or have an 
Elmer.  I purchased a kit for a folded dipole at the electronics store 
that supplied all the TV repair men.  It was carefully measured for the 
40m novice band and hung between two trees.  I used to copy cw in the 
40m novice band with my HQ-100 to improve my speed (the 78 rpm Smith 
code records I used seemed more difficult than listening on the air).

By the time my novice license came I had made several ham friends at the 
high school.  I also had built a transmitter that used a 6AG7 with a 
1625 PA using mostly parts collected at the Collins surplus store, but 
neither I nor my friends got it to work. I bought a used Ranger listed 
in the classified ads of the local newspaper and found a DPDT knife 
switch with a ceramic base to use as a T/R switch.  When I couldn't work 
any one, I asked KN0VZZ (about a half mile away) to listen for me.  
Well, he said I was really weak and wondered if I had the antenna 
connected.  I found I had the knife switch wired so the transmitter was 
connected to the poles.  The old Ranger had a pretty good matching 
system and I must have been loading up the HQ-100.  No apparent damage 
was done to the RX, but the guy who sold the TX to me came by to see how 
it was working.  By then I had worked several states.  He looked at my 
antenna and said I should put up a regular dipole and feed it with coax.

Back to the electronics store I went and bought enough copper weld and 
insulators to make the antenna.  After a couple of weeks I had enough 
money to go back and buy enough RG59 and a PL-259 to complete the 
project.  This antenna used a different tree.  I climbed up about 70 ft 
and hooked up one end.  The other end was only about 15 feet off the 
ground, so I guess I was using a sloper before I ever read about them.  
Later, with a general license, I used that antenna to work 40-10m.  In 
those days I didn't have an SWR bridge and the transmitter would load to 
full power.

I kept climbing the tree and raising the antenna a little higher each 
time.  I finally was able to connect the other end to a higher tree, but 
the rope was snagged in an elm tree.  After a couple more months I got 
it straighened out so the antenna was nearly horizontal.  I used nylon 
cord for the halyards and while I was away at college a tornado passed 
over at tree top level and brought down the 80 ft tree.  The other tree 
was snapped off half way up.  I often wonder if when the big tree fell 
if the antenna connected to both caused the smaller tree to break off.  
My father never said a word to me about it.

Anyhow, I guess my very first transmitting antenna was a Hammerlund HQ-100.

John,  WoGN