[R-390] Small Voodoo Antenna

[Don and Diana Cunningham]

Fantastic story, Harry!!  Remember my first rig, an Knight Kit Span Master
that wasn't much more than a crystal rig, but still introduced me to the
world of shortwave radio.  I built it, and after help troubleshooting, a 10
year old boy was amazed at what he could hear!!  Thanks for the memories,
Harry.
73,
Don, WB5HAK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harry Joel" <hcjoel at direcpc.com>
To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2004 7:20 PM
Subject: [R-390] Small Voodoo Antenna


> a bit of history about antennas, if you care.
>
> As a youngster (1943) I was fascinated about anything radio related.
Living in a boardinghouse for out-of-town highschool boys, some of us got
into a contest (I could call it now a DX kind) to see who could pull in the
most distant AM station using a crystal set. Chrystal sets were the only
type of receiver we could indulge in (private listening, small, no AC power,
etc). We had them on the small bedside table.  Antennas!!! where to put
them? Most just had a short hank of wire laying under the bed. There were
two tall and unused flag poles about 50 yards in front of the building. My
bed was next to the second floor window and reading about long-wire antennas
I decided to "hoist" my antenna up there. On a week-end, with all the other
boys gone home, I put a small wire loop around one pole, affixed a porcelain
egg and attached one end of the antenna wire. Then attached a string to the
loop and hoisted it up to the top (30 plus feet). Doing the same on the
other flag pole, but just fed the wire through the eye of the insulator so
it could move. Went up to the fourth floor attic and threw a long string to
the ground to hoist the loose end of the antenna up. Down to attach the wire
to the string then up again to the attic. Attached another insulator next to
the roof line, then tightened up good on the antenna wire. Down at ground
level I yanked hard on the halyard of pole number one to break the string.
Now I had my long wire. Fed the down leg through the window. Presto. I won
the DX contest by routinely receiving a strong signal from BBC London at my
location in upper Bavaria. This was only possible when ALL AM stations shut
down during air raid warnings. The other contestants wanted to know how I
got the antenna up there. I led them to believe that I shimmied up on both
poles. They were suitably impressed. PS: Listening to BBC was considered a
criminal act by the Nazi powers, which made my private listening even more
enjoyable. I can still here the station break audio of a deep kettle drum
spelling out the V for victory morse code. They had a regular program on BBC
named English by Radio which I enjoyed a lot.
> I have other early radio memories, but this is my
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