Mother Nature Hates Amateur Radio Antennas

Antennas are a very important part of any amateur radio set-up. In this video I show my "switched length " antennas from the present and the past and speculate on the future of small loop antennas which are also known as magnetic loop antennas. Also shown is a tilt over antenna support.
Here is a link to a QST article about switched length antennas:
mactenna.com/pdf/article.pdf

[@aerofart]

Wow, Jim. Such a nice antenna system you had there. Really sorry to see all that hard work going to waste. I’m sure it was your pride and joy. I guess the best thing to do is look on the bright side. At least now you’ll be able to build another one, and maybe even a better one that includes all those things you wish you had done, but didn’t do the first time around. Thanks for the video showing all that detail. I learned a lot! 73s de KO6ARA.

[@Jimscoolstuff]

Thanks for your sympathy. You are correct in the new opportunities. I am now pursuing portable antennas and mag loop antennas. I think antennas are awesome. Thanks for your comments.
73s de KQ8E

[@JohnGuest45]

Losing the mast to the wind is most hams worst nightmare. I`ve had a few longwires and an 80m inverted L come down due to wind and ice a few times. I have the beam on a 45ft crank up lattice which retracts to 15ft for peace of mind. I was intersted in magloops a long time ago but for best efficiency you need fairly large diameter copper tube and vacuum caps. I did make a 15m-10m HF discone once which was an interesting project even though the performance wasnt great. If memory serves it was from the ARRL antenna handbook which most hams have a copy of :)
All the best

[@Jimscoolstuff]

Thanks for your comment. I have made considerable progress on improving the Mag Loop antenna. I plan to make a video as soon as the design is complete.

[@DellFargus]

So, the traps in a trap dipole are just ground-activated relays? Or, are they something else? I've seen those in catalogs and was wondering.

[@rob379lqz]

Good point DellFargus. No requirement for Ground. In fact, a ground could be detrimental to the Radio.

[@Jimscoolstuff]

A trap is an inductor and capacitor which are resonant at a particular frequency and act as a high impedance at that frequency. Thus the effective length of the antenna ends at the trap at that frequency, but not at higher and lower frequencies.

[@DellFargus]

@@Jimscoolstuff Thanks! I learned something.

[@rob379lqz]

Yes, and additional flat earth theory. Thank-you, Cool Jim. 👍

[@thelement3363]

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