WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 This episode of HamTalk Live is brought to you 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:06.000 by Tower Electronics. For connectors, cables, 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:12.880 and more, call 920 -435 -2973 or visit pl -259 00:00:12.880 --> 00:00:17.620 .com. And by ICOM, heard it, worked it, logged 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:22.839 it. Visit www .icomamerica .com slash amateur 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:52.360 for more information about ICOM radios. Standing 00:00:52.360 --> 00:00:58.359 in the snow with a brand new radio Catching the 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:03.579 ISS, satellites are the best A date on the roof, 00:01:04.060 --> 00:01:08.079 repeater down the street What fun it is to make 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:13.959 contacts with everyone I meet Oh, radio, radio, 00:01:14.219 --> 00:01:19.140 QTS and Fox 1A I like to get all the gifts around 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:47.319 the USA Hey, radio, radio, QTS and Fox 1A Hey, 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:49.920 good evening everyone. It's time for ham talk 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:54.920 live episode number 240 is new Helical antenna 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:59.980 recorded live on Thursday, December 17th 2020 00:01:59.980 --> 00:02:03.540 I'm your host Neil rap wb9 vpg. Thanks for tuning 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:06.980 in to this episode of ham talk live tonight We're 00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:10.860 joined once again by John fortune w that 6nbc 00:02:11.210 --> 00:02:14.469 And we'll take your calls live in just a few 00:02:14.469 --> 00:02:17.430 minutes. Last week here on the show, Steve Molo, 00:02:17.770 --> 00:02:20.830 Ki4KWR from Giga Parts was here to talk about 00:02:20.830 --> 00:02:24.310 some holiday gift ideas for hams. If you missed 00:02:24.310 --> 00:02:28.169 that, you can listen anytime at HamTalkLive .com 00:02:28.169 --> 00:02:31.289 or on your favorite podcast app or on YouTube. 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:36.750 And you can catch the rebroadcast on WTWW that's 00:02:36.750 --> 00:02:42.659 5 0 8 5 a .m. Saturday afternoons at about 3 00:02:42.659 --> 00:02:46.199 30 p .m. Eastern time lots of stuff going on 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:49.400 on the air this month We have the 12 days of 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:53.139 Christmas special event going on now Through 00:02:53.139 --> 00:02:56.340 Christmas and then the Christmas birthday event 00:02:58.219 --> 00:03:01.840 From Lou and Sally that Lou has the I think it's 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:06.060 Lou that has the the December 25th birthday So 00:03:06.060 --> 00:03:08.680 they'll be celebrating that and then the Santa 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:13.819 Dats are going on CQ Santa calm is one of those 00:03:13.819 --> 00:03:17.840 you can check out and Then Yoda month is at the 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:21.300 halfway point and they're up to like 60 maybe 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:25.659 70 ,000 Q so is right now, so They're well on 00:03:25.659 --> 00:03:29.039 track to beat the record from from last year 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:32.460 so lots of stuff going on and we're gonna talk 00:03:32.460 --> 00:03:35.680 tonight about an antenna that that you might 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:39.960 even be able to to disguise it as a as a winter 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.659 decoration will talk about that here in a little 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:45.659 bit so get your questions ready to go for John 00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:49.020 If you're listening to us live on Thursday night, 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.060 give us a call after the interview is over by 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:59.120 calling 859 -982 -7373. I'll give you that number 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:02.680 again several times before it's time to call 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:07.340 in, so we'll let you know that. Later on in the 00:04:07.340 --> 00:04:09.699 show, you can also tweet us. It's at HamTalk 00:04:09.699 --> 00:04:11.939 Live on Twitter. You can fire that whenever you 00:04:11.939 --> 00:04:15.389 want and I'll check that as we... have time this 00:04:15.389 --> 00:04:20.350 evening, but again, the number for later on in 00:04:20.350 --> 00:04:28.550 the show is 859 -982 -7373. Just have that ready 00:04:28.550 --> 00:04:31.509 to go and we'll let you know when it's time. 00:04:31.529 --> 00:04:36.170 We'll talk a little bit with John about the antenna 00:04:36.170 --> 00:04:38.110 and give you a little background first before 00:04:38.110 --> 00:04:40.290 we open it up for questions. So we'll do that 00:04:40.290 --> 00:04:42.750 a little later on in the show. So I'll be back 00:04:42.750 --> 00:04:46.220 with John. right after this word from Tower Electronics 00:04:46.220 --> 00:05:12.810 right here on HamTalk Live. I'm not so sure why 00:05:12.810 --> 00:05:16.750 I ever used any other PL259s. Mine are better. 00:05:17.329 --> 00:05:20.350 Besides, you deserve the best. You know I love 00:05:20.350 --> 00:05:24.089 you. Don't be caught without PL259s. Visit Tower 00:05:24.089 --> 00:05:26.689 Electronics at a ham fest near you. Or visit 00:05:26.689 --> 00:05:31.709 them online anytime at pl -259 .com or call 920 00:05:31.709 --> 00:05:36.509 -435 -2973. They also have ham sticks, mobile 00:05:36.509 --> 00:05:39.170 antennas, and meters too. See the whole catalog. 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:43.800 Go to PL -259 .com Tower Electronics, the Ham's 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:48.779 Dime Store since 1978. All I want for Christmas 00:05:48.779 --> 00:05:53.920 is to listen to another episode of Ham Talk Live. 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:08.819 Welcome back to Ham Talk Live Tower Electronics. 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:13.779 is back out on the ham fest trail as covid permits 00:06:13.779 --> 00:06:17.720 their schedule right now looks like uh tailgate 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:21.759 in orlando on uh jalot or january 16th rather 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:25.519 uh jack lawyer's tailgate uh arcadia florida 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:29.000 ham fest january 23rd dalton georgia february 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:33.199 27th but you can catch them anytime anywhere 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:40.500 pl -259 So thanks to Tower Electronics for sponsoring 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:45.540 the show once again tonight and we welcome you 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.439 back. John Portun is our guest tonight. He joins 00:06:48.439 --> 00:06:52.699 us on the Orlando Amateur Radio Club and hamcation 00:06:52.699 --> 00:06:57.240 Zoom line tonight. And John's call is W6NBC. 00:06:58.980 --> 00:07:05.040 and he's been a ham since 1965. He's active from 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:10.319 160 meters to 2 .4 gigahertz and helps people 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:15.420 get licensed and new licensees. He manages a 00:07:15.420 --> 00:07:19.000 remote base on HF and VHF on Vandenberg Air Force 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:22.500 Base and does a lot of local two meter and 40 00:07:22.500 --> 00:07:26.009 meter mobile from his RV. And he's married to 00:07:26.009 --> 00:07:30.110 KF -60EB and has three married children, 12 grandchildren. 00:07:30.310 --> 00:07:34.050 He retired in 2002. Spent most of his time working 00:07:34.050 --> 00:07:40.250 for, yeah, you guessed it, KNBC TV in Los Angeles 00:07:40.250 --> 00:07:43.430 and also Ampex Corporation and Sony Electronics. 00:07:44.089 --> 00:07:47.290 He frequently writes for QST and other ham radio 00:07:47.290 --> 00:07:49.889 publications, including how to deal with HOAs 00:07:49.889 --> 00:07:52.319 and antennas. And that's what we're going to 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:55.860 talk about tonight is one of his latest antenna 00:07:55.860 --> 00:07:58.379 creation. So John, welcome back to the show. 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:01.819 Thanks for coming back. Oh, my pleasure, Neil. 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:05.699 Very happy to be here. Well, this new antenna, 00:08:05.779 --> 00:08:08.800 I have to give a little background here because 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:12.319 I first asked John, hey, do you have because 00:08:12.319 --> 00:08:14.360 you're always coming up with all these different 00:08:14.360 --> 00:08:17.819 ideas for antennas. And I said, do you have any 00:08:17.819 --> 00:08:21.269 any Christmas? antennas do you have anything 00:08:21.269 --> 00:08:23.930 you're like well no but I but I've got this new 00:08:23.930 --> 00:08:30.670 helical copper tape antenna and immediately when 00:08:30.670 --> 00:08:33.289 I go to the website and take a look at a picture 00:08:33.289 --> 00:08:36.789 of this it's wrapped around this PVC pole and 00:08:36.789 --> 00:08:40.129 it looks it looks just like the North Pole so 00:08:40.129 --> 00:08:44.370 I think you know or a peppermint stick so I'm 00:08:44.370 --> 00:08:47.720 thinking this is a Christmas themed antenna I 00:08:47.720 --> 00:08:50.460 don't know if that was what you thought, but 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:55.279 I think a little red on that copper tape and 00:08:55.279 --> 00:08:59.000 nobody would ever know. And maybe an elf hat. 00:08:59.879 --> 00:09:04.120 Yeah, put a little elf hat on top of it. Well, 00:09:04.179 --> 00:09:07.440 you're always coming up with these great ideas 00:09:07.440 --> 00:09:11.269 on how to kind of make these antennas blend in 00:09:11.269 --> 00:09:14.610 so tell us a little bit of the the backstory 00:09:14.610 --> 00:09:17.970 on how this and by the way this is the the most 00:09:17.970 --> 00:09:21.990 recent uh qst article orders i like to call it 00:09:21.990 --> 00:09:26.230 sometimes q street um give us some of the background 00:09:26.230 --> 00:09:30.289 on on how this this idea came about and and how 00:09:30.289 --> 00:09:34.129 this all worked Yeah, well, this is a bit of 00:09:34.129 --> 00:09:37.529 a ham war story and since we can't hear show 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:40.769 you how to build one of these on on on radio 00:09:40.769 --> 00:09:45.370 Even though I like radio as a medium the a bit 00:09:45.370 --> 00:09:48.909 of the anecdote of the background of it at my 00:09:48.909 --> 00:09:52.950 pre -covid weekly ham breakfast my good buddy 00:09:52.950 --> 00:10:00.879 KF 6 not KF but K W6 OEK confusing my wife's 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:04.019 call sign in there. W -6 -O -E -K, Jim Bailey, 00:10:04.460 --> 00:10:07.480 who helps me a lot with articles, and I were 00:10:07.480 --> 00:10:10.340 just kicking the bull around one morning and 00:10:10.340 --> 00:10:13.700 the question came up, what kind of articles does 00:10:13.700 --> 00:10:17.759 QST like the best? And I thought about this and 00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:21.860 now with this latest article, that's just 27 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:25.299 articles in QST, so I do have some experience. 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:29.029 I said it's obvious. They like simple, build 00:10:29.029 --> 00:10:32.090 it articles. So we kind of brainstormed there 00:10:32.090 --> 00:10:35.789 over breakfast, one of the last breakfasts we 00:10:35.789 --> 00:10:39.929 had. And on the way home, I let the thinking 00:10:39.929 --> 00:10:44.429 cap work. And when I got home, in two hours, 00:10:44.470 --> 00:10:48.509 I had the antenna built. In two more hours, I 00:10:48.509 --> 00:10:51.230 had the article written and put in the mail off 00:10:51.230 --> 00:10:57.019 to QST. And as little as a week later, They sent 00:10:57.019 --> 00:10:59.899 me a letter back saying they accepted it. It's 00:10:59.899 --> 00:11:03.679 an absolute record. Most of my articles of the 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:07.940 27 of them in QSD have taken up to a year between 00:11:07.940 --> 00:11:10.799 the time I wrote the article and they got in 00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:14.759 the magazine, not this one. Well, this one is 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:18.399 built out of, and if you haven't seen it and 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:19.980 haven't looked at it, you should, because it's 00:11:19.980 --> 00:11:23.759 unusual. It appeared in the... October issue, 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:26.360 which is that black one with the ham boot cab 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:33.399 on the front. Hams love PVC pipe and copper pipe. 00:11:33.659 --> 00:11:36.500 So I figured you gotta make the simplest antenna 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:40.799 in the world out of PVC pipe and copper pipe. 00:11:41.179 --> 00:11:44.539 A good buddy at breakfast and I, we have this 00:11:44.539 --> 00:11:47.610 standing joke. The ham who dies with the most 00:11:47.610 --> 00:11:56.350 PVC pipe wins. It's made out of copper tape. 00:11:57.339 --> 00:12:00.139 actually snail tape, the kind of tape you get 00:12:00.139 --> 00:12:03.580 at a garden store and put around your planters 00:12:03.580 --> 00:12:05.980 to keep the snails from crawling up and eating 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:10.659 your begonias. Or you can buy it anywhere. On 00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:13.779 the internet, it's readily available for RF shielding 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:16.100 and other things. One inch wide copper tape, 00:12:16.580 --> 00:12:19.700 an inch and a quarter PVC. It's only 18 inches 00:12:19.700 --> 00:12:25.000 tall, yet it's almost as good as a J -Pole. That's 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:28.529 the background to it. All right. Well, let's 00:12:28.529 --> 00:12:30.850 talk a little bit about the theory behind this 00:12:30.850 --> 00:12:33.470 because you've got this thing just twisted around 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:36.830 and It really does look like a peppermint stick 00:12:36.830 --> 00:12:41.769 and and I've sent out a picture of it on our 00:12:41.769 --> 00:12:45.669 social media site. So if you don't have the QST 00:12:45.669 --> 00:12:48.690 article handy, you can take a look at that or 00:12:48.690 --> 00:12:53.730 John's website at w6nbc .com. But you can see 00:12:53.730 --> 00:12:56.990 that it looks like just a ribbon wrapped around 00:12:56.990 --> 00:13:00.990 a pole. That's it. So let's talk a little bit 00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:04.850 about how in the world you get this to tune and 00:13:04.850 --> 00:13:13.230 get this working. The antenna is basically a 00:13:13.230 --> 00:13:16.950 coil loader, a loading coil shortened vertical, 00:13:17.409 --> 00:13:20.250 a halfway vertical. It's pretty straightforward. 00:13:20.450 --> 00:13:24.450 Most TAMs know what that is. But instead of being 00:13:24.450 --> 00:13:27.990 discreetly loaded with a closely wound wire loading 00:13:27.990 --> 00:13:32.769 coil, it's continuously wound. So the antenna 00:13:32.769 --> 00:13:36.419 and the loading coil are all one piece. The copper 00:13:36.419 --> 00:13:41.220 tape, being an inch wide, is good conductivity. 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:43.200 And if we have some time to talk about it, we 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:46.100 can talk about efficiency. That gives the antenna 00:13:46.100 --> 00:13:51.039 high efficiency and the spacing helps with skin 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:56.500 effect loss. But what's interesting about this 00:13:56.500 --> 00:14:02.529 antenna, I think, and this is a ham tip. that 00:14:02.529 --> 00:14:04.690 a lot of hams don't know this, but I've found 00:14:04.690 --> 00:14:07.309 this out with easy neck modeling. Easy neck, 00:14:07.370 --> 00:14:09.690 by the way, is my favorite piece of ham software. 00:14:10.169 --> 00:14:12.529 If you don't know how to run easy neck, learn 00:14:12.529 --> 00:14:16.629 how if you're an antenna person. Anyway, one 00:14:16.629 --> 00:14:20.070 of the basic principles that this antenna embodies 00:14:20.070 --> 00:14:25.990 is how easy it is to match a small antenna. Bigger 00:14:25.990 --> 00:14:29.610 antennas are more difficult. Now, we all know 00:14:29.879 --> 00:14:33.419 that a dipole, a wired dipole out in free space, 00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:37.440 has a center feed point impedance of 72 ohms. 00:14:37.740 --> 00:14:40.360 And that's fine. That's not a perfect match though 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:44.059 to 50 ohm coax. But if you make that antenna 00:14:44.059 --> 00:14:47.320 shorter by putting loading coil in it or making 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.259 it continuously loaded, like this little antenna 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:54.620 is, the center impedance is now much lower. In 00:14:54.620 --> 00:14:57.000 the case of this antenna, something around 25 00:14:57.000 --> 00:15:00.679 ohms. But what impedance is there at the end 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:04.519 of this antenna? Well, most hands know that the 00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:07.419 ends of a dipole, the impedance is high, the 00:15:07.419 --> 00:15:10.080 voltage is high, the current is low. The impedance 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:12.779 out at the end of an antenna of a dipole can 00:15:12.779 --> 00:15:16.240 be several thousand ohms. This means that for 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:20.120 any small antenna, any size reduced antenna, 00:15:20.980 --> 00:15:25.639 there are two 50 ohm points, partly off center. 00:15:26.009 --> 00:15:28.669 And that's exactly what's used in this particular 00:15:28.669 --> 00:15:31.629 antenna. The top wrap, the top of the antenna 00:15:31.629 --> 00:15:34.029 is three and a half turns, and the bottom of 00:15:34.029 --> 00:15:36.669 the antenna is four and a half turns. It's an 00:15:36.669 --> 00:15:41.889 off -center fed dipole. Either one of... to the 00:15:41.889 --> 00:15:45.129 side of the middle of this antenna, a short distance 00:15:45.129 --> 00:15:48.269 by about one turn, you'll find 50 ohms naturally. 00:15:48.370 --> 00:15:50.929 You can hook the coax to it and you don't need 00:15:50.929 --> 00:15:54.009 any other magic. That's what's handy about small 00:15:54.009 --> 00:15:57.529 antennas. And I use this principle all the time. 00:15:58.690 --> 00:16:04.990 Anyway, so that's one of the basic theory points 00:16:04.990 --> 00:16:10.879 in this antenna. Well, you mentioned that You 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:14.700 could modify this for HF and that's gonna make 00:16:14.700 --> 00:16:18.519 it a bigger antenna. So Let's talk about some 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:21.700 suggestions for our listeners if you if you want 00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:25.779 to try to Turn this into an HF antenna and make 00:16:25.779 --> 00:16:28.960 some of those modifications and and I know you 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.519 want to kind of keep track of some of that So 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:34.639 so talk a little bit about making this a bigger 00:16:34.639 --> 00:16:38.360 antenna Of course, and this is really what I'm 00:16:38.330 --> 00:16:41.149 really interested in. It's a very good little 00:16:41.149 --> 00:16:45.610 two meter antenna, but I'm most interested in 00:16:45.610 --> 00:16:48.129 seeing what can be done with it on lower frequencies. 00:16:48.610 --> 00:16:51.070 I know for sure it will be fairly easy to take 00:16:51.070 --> 00:16:54.750 it down to six meters, because all you have to 00:16:54.750 --> 00:16:57.730 do is increase the dimensions of an antenna, 00:16:57.970 --> 00:17:00.909 lengthen it, and you know, you can take it down 00:17:00.909 --> 00:17:04.829 in frequency. I would recommend if anybody wants 00:17:04.829 --> 00:17:07.109 to try this, and I have one fellow who's working 00:17:07.109 --> 00:17:11.089 on a 40 meter version of it. Here's my recommendation 00:17:11.089 --> 00:17:13.650 if you want to make this antenna for a lower 00:17:13.650 --> 00:17:17.490 frequency. Stay with the same size tape and the 00:17:17.490 --> 00:17:20.230 same size spacing. By the way, the spacing is 00:17:20.230 --> 00:17:23.609 to reduce skin effect loss between adjacent turns. 00:17:23.990 --> 00:17:26.670 Coil turns don't like to be next to each other. 00:17:26.940 --> 00:17:31.859 They cause skin effect loss and make the conductivity 00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:37.140 higher or greater inefficiency. But if you're 00:17:37.140 --> 00:17:40.039 going to make it for a lower frequency, use the 00:17:40.039 --> 00:17:42.279 same one inch tape. It's about equivalent to 00:17:42.279 --> 00:17:45.500 half inch copper tubing. So it's nice. It's very 00:17:45.500 --> 00:17:48.640 conductive. It's very conductive material. And 00:17:48.640 --> 00:17:53.180 so the efficiency can stay high. Just make the 00:17:53.180 --> 00:17:57.150 pole bigger in diameter. A six meter one, you 00:17:57.150 --> 00:18:01.089 might make it on three inch PVC pipe instead 00:18:01.089 --> 00:18:03.970 of inch and a quarter. And of course, make it 00:18:03.970 --> 00:18:07.990 longer. Where do you start? Very simply. Put 00:18:07.990 --> 00:18:14.609 on the pipe 80 % of the half wavelength. So if 00:18:14.609 --> 00:18:18.349 the wavelength, let's say, is six meters, half 00:18:18.349 --> 00:18:20.369 of the half wavelength is three meters, that's 00:18:20.369 --> 00:18:24.250 about 10 feet. Put about eight feet of tape on 00:18:24.250 --> 00:18:27.019 the pipe. That'll get you in the ballpark. It'll 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:30.240 be too long still. But that's a good starting 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.700 point. And then start whacking tape off. It's 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:36.200 easy to do. Just cut it off the top until you 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:39.240 get a good SWR. Then cut it off both ends until 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:41.980 you get it tuned up. It's a very easy antenna 00:18:41.980 --> 00:18:46.000 to tune. So that's some of the basics of putting 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.380 it on another band. I think it'll go easily to 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:52.380 10 meters and 12 meters. I'm going to try a 20 00:18:52.380 --> 00:18:57.279 meter version here one of these days. Okay, now 00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:03.380 I'm gonna throw you the curveball John sure Let's 00:19:03.380 --> 00:19:12.180 say I want to add red to this What I've been 00:19:12.180 --> 00:19:16.019 running through some ideas on on what I would 00:19:16.019 --> 00:19:19.839 use to do that but what What are your ideas? 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:24.259 If I want to make that copper look look red and 00:19:24.259 --> 00:19:29.130 make it disguised as the North Pole. I don't 00:19:29.130 --> 00:19:32.069 know. I think I might over tape it with one inch 00:19:32.069 --> 00:19:38.589 plastic electrical tape. That might do it. Nothing 00:19:38.589 --> 00:19:41.109 comes off the head. I can't think of spray painting 00:19:41.109 --> 00:19:43.950 it. That sounds rather difficult. You can paint 00:19:43.950 --> 00:19:47.430 this antenna if you want to. I don't have any 00:19:47.430 --> 00:19:49.529 ideas, so I'm open. If you've got some ideas, 00:19:50.009 --> 00:19:54.200 I welcome them. Well, you're close. I was thinking 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:59.779 maybe ribbon. Well, yeah, that might work. At 00:19:59.779 --> 00:20:02.799 least for the holiday season. Yeah, get some 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:06.359 nice one -inch ribbon from the local sewing store 00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:10.640 and just tape it on. Since this is wound on helically 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:13.799 in a nice uniform helix, it would be easy to 00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:17.640 run the ribbon on in the same way. A little bit 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:22.000 of gorilla tape should hold it on fine. And then 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:24.079 the other the other thing I thought of was maybe 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:29.359 like some red cellophane kind of like a one -inch 00:20:29.359 --> 00:20:35.660 You know put it down in strips Then you then 00:20:35.660 --> 00:20:40.599 you can disguise it which which you know Why 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:43.500 why go with this antenna instead of a j -pole? 00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:48.920 Is it just to make it less obvious? Yeah, I think 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:51.859 there are several distinct advantages to it. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:55.799 First of all, the classic homebrew copper pipe 00:20:55.799 --> 00:20:59.359 J -Pole, the favorite antenna of homebrew hams 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:02.759 of all times, the famous copper half -inch pipe 00:21:02.759 --> 00:21:07.440 J -Pole. That antenna is five feet tall, and 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:13.500 this antenna is 18 inches tall, and the gain 00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:17.920 is only half a dB less than that J -Pole. so 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:22.759 So it certainly is far stealthier Your neighbors 00:21:22.759 --> 00:21:32.680 might even think you opened up a barbershop It's 00:21:32.680 --> 00:21:35.240 extremely lightweight too doesn't weigh more 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:37.940 than a couple of pounds so if you if you're out 00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:43.059 in a bike -a -thon or you know a mobile event 00:21:43.059 --> 00:21:45.420 where you go out to help out for net control. 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:49.660 This makes a great antenna for net control because 00:21:49.660 --> 00:21:54.940 you can also build it in one piece so that the 00:21:54.940 --> 00:21:57.920 mast and the antenna are a single integrated 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:02.400 piece. You have to build it 18 inches long. Build 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:04.819 it six feet long if you want. Just put it up 00:22:04.819 --> 00:22:08.839 at the top of a single piece. No clamps, no nothing. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:11.339 Very lightweight. You can carry it along. Maybe 00:22:11.339 --> 00:22:13.519 use it as a walking stick while you're walking 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:17.000 around at the bike -a -thon. So that's one of 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.220 the distinct events. And it's cheap as heck. 00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:24.740 If you amortize the cost of this antenna, even 00:22:24.740 --> 00:22:26.880 if you have to buy a bit more stuff, which you 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:30.940 usually do to build anything, but the amortized 00:22:30.940 --> 00:22:34.339 cost of this antenna is under $10, even including 00:22:34.339 --> 00:22:36.839 the pigtail and the coax and everything else 00:22:36.839 --> 00:22:40.740 you use for it. It uses a little eight foot long 00:22:40.740 --> 00:22:47.460 RG -59 or Mini -8 coax pigtail. which can hook 00:22:47.460 --> 00:22:51.319 direct to an HT, or I would recommend using heavier 00:22:51.319 --> 00:22:54.319 coax beyond it back into the shack just to minimize 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:57.759 loss. And there's the ballon. The ballon is easy 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:02.680 to make. You just wind some turns of the RG58 00:23:02.680 --> 00:23:05.200 and shove it up in the end of the pipe and put 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:09.519 a cap on the end to hold it in. And it's a terribly 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:13.960 easy antenna to make, but quite efficient and 00:23:13.960 --> 00:23:17.589 good gain. Same gain as a J pole basically only 00:23:17.589 --> 00:23:23.089 half a DB less Well, there you go. That's a more 00:23:23.089 --> 00:23:27.569 ingenuity from John fortune w6 NBC so we're going 00:23:27.569 --> 00:23:31.109 to take a break and When we come back, we're 00:23:31.109 --> 00:23:33.430 going to talk with John. We'll talk maybe a little 00:23:33.430 --> 00:23:36.890 more about the efficiency and and talk about 00:23:36.890 --> 00:23:40.190 Disguising antennas and take your calls and your 00:23:40.190 --> 00:23:47.869 questions at eight five nine 9 8 2 73 73 so I'll 00:23:47.869 --> 00:23:50.960 be back with John right after this word from 00:23:50.960 --> 00:24:20.440 ICOM right here on HamTalk Live. Display is 2 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:23.160 .3 inches for exceptional viewability and the 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:26.200 audio is 80 % louder. 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And the perfect accessory 00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:14.200 for the 705 is the optional backpack LC192 with 00:26:14.200 --> 00:26:16.549 a special compartment for your iPhone. AC705, 00:26:16.890 --> 00:26:19.109 and room for accessories for soda activations 00:26:19.109 --> 00:26:21.950 or a day in the park in its shipping now. Visit 00:26:21.950 --> 00:26:25.329 IcomAmerica .com slash amateur for more information 00:26:25.329 --> 00:26:29.490 on Icom radios. Join the conversation. Give us 00:26:29.490 --> 00:26:35.680 a call at 859 -982 -7373. Again, the number to 00:26:35.680 --> 00:26:42.160 call is 859 -982 -7373. Or if you'd rather type 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:45.940 than talk, tweet us at HamTalk Live. Now, here's 00:26:45.940 --> 00:26:51.480 Neil Rapp with more HamTalk Live. HamTalk Live. 00:26:51.759 --> 00:27:07.039 The longer you listen, the later it gets. Welcome 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:11.799 back to HamTalk Live! Thanks to Icom America 00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:14.799 for sponsoring the show. Check them out at icomamerica 00:27:14.799 --> 00:27:19.279 .com slash amateur. HamTalk Live is on the air 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:21.900 every Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time 00:27:21.900 --> 00:27:25.059 right here at hamtalklive .com. Be sure to check 00:27:25.059 --> 00:27:29.319 us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And 00:27:29.319 --> 00:27:31.539 as we've been doing here the past few weeks, 00:27:31.660 --> 00:27:35.299 we do have A ham radio joke of the week, so we'll 00:27:35.299 --> 00:27:40.259 do that. It's time for that right now with N9GSU. 00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:46.400 Now it's time for the HamTalk Live Ham Radio 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:48.640 Joke of the Week, the part of the show where 00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:52.079 Rick tells us a ham radio joke. The HamTalk Live 00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:54.400 Ham Radio Joke of the Week is brought to you 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:59.140 by QRM Labs. Now here's Rick Garrett in 9GSU 00:27:59.140 --> 00:28:07.720 with today's HamTalk Live Joke of the Week. As 00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:10.259 I've gotten older, I find I'm very sensitive 00:28:10.259 --> 00:28:13.890 to high -pitched sounds. When I hear them, it 00:28:13.890 --> 00:28:18.970 hurts. This has been the Ham Talk Live Ham Radio 00:28:18.970 --> 00:28:22.990 Joke of the Week with Rick Garrett in 9GSU. Tune 00:28:22.990 --> 00:28:25.789 in again next week for another joke from Rick. 00:28:28.769 --> 00:28:31.849 Oh, there we go. That is another joke from Rick. 00:28:32.210 --> 00:28:35.900 Well... We're going to go back to the antennas. 00:28:36.380 --> 00:28:40.579 If you have a question for John for two W six 00:28:40.579 --> 00:28:45.700 NBC, give us a call at eight five nine. nine 00:28:45.700 --> 00:28:49.240 eight two seventy three seventy three now is 00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:53.359 the time to call eight five nine nine eight two 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:55.579 seventy three seventy three or tweeters and sat 00:28:55.579 --> 00:28:59.680 and talk live on twitter uh... if you are on 00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:02.220 uh... speaker you can type comment and we'll 00:29:02.220 --> 00:29:05.220 see that and if you're listening to us on w t 00:29:05.220 --> 00:29:08.160 w w or on the podcast edition you won't be able 00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:11.299 to reach us uh... we're doing this live on thursday 00:29:11.299 --> 00:29:15.549 night uh... so We've talked about, you know, 00:29:15.710 --> 00:29:18.670 disguising some of these antennas. Let's talk 00:29:18.670 --> 00:29:22.069 a little bit about the efficiency and the radiation 00:29:22.069 --> 00:29:26.910 pattern off of this thing, John. Okay, the radiation 00:29:26.910 --> 00:29:29.529 pattern is straightforward. It's a dipole, a 00:29:29.529 --> 00:29:32.990 shortened dipole. So it has the same basic radiation 00:29:32.990 --> 00:29:36.509 pattern as a vertical dipole. The classical donut 00:29:36.509 --> 00:29:42.670 -shaped radiation, horizontally, and omnidirectional. 00:29:42.829 --> 00:29:48.250 if you look down on top of it. So that's then 00:29:48.250 --> 00:29:54.670 with a gain of 1 .6 dBi compared to 2 .1 and 00:29:54.670 --> 00:29:57.170 the same radiation pattern of a J -pole, which 00:29:57.170 --> 00:29:59.910 is basically a dipole. The bottom section of 00:29:59.910 --> 00:30:04.210 a J -pole does not radiate. Efficiency -wise, 00:30:04.230 --> 00:30:07.349 this antenna is good, and I set out in designing 00:30:07.349 --> 00:30:10.329 this one to be sure it was. That's why I used 00:30:10.329 --> 00:30:15.519 the wide copper tape. It has low ohmic resistance, 00:30:16.119 --> 00:30:20.160 and that's important, very, very, very important 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:24.359 for small antennas. Any of you who have ever 00:30:24.359 --> 00:30:27.299 played around with the so -called magnetic loop, 00:30:27.619 --> 00:30:30.319 I don't like that term, I like calling them compact 00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:32.839 transmitting loops, know that you need to make 00:30:32.839 --> 00:30:36.660 them out of big copper conductors if you want 00:30:36.660 --> 00:30:41.680 them to work well. Because... They suffer from 00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:45.220 efficiency losses due to one phenomenon. Now 00:30:45.220 --> 00:30:49.400 here's a little theory. If you draw the diagram, 00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:53.240 the equivalent diagram of any antenna, it has 00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:57.740 four things in it. A coil and a capacitor, distributed 00:30:57.740 --> 00:31:00.480 inductance, distributed capacity. That's what 00:31:00.480 --> 00:31:05.619 makes it resonant at a given size. But it also, 00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:09.109 in series with the coil and the capacitor, are 00:31:09.109 --> 00:31:13.289 two resistances, R sub C we call it, or conductor 00:31:13.289 --> 00:31:16.589 resistance. That's just the plane ohmic resistance 00:31:16.589 --> 00:31:20.210 of the copper or the aluminum. The other is an 00:31:20.210 --> 00:31:24.329 entity called radiation resistance. Hams have 00:31:24.329 --> 00:31:26.250 vaguely heard of the term, but not a lot of hams 00:31:26.250 --> 00:31:29.309 really understand what radiation resistance is. 00:31:29.650 --> 00:31:33.049 Just a brief word on that. Radiation resistance 00:31:33.049 --> 00:31:35.650 is a real resistance. It's measured in ohms. 00:31:36.519 --> 00:31:40.319 But it's a virtual resistance caused by the loading 00:31:40.319 --> 00:31:46.720 of space around an antenna. Space is not unreal. 00:31:46.859 --> 00:31:49.640 Empty space is not unreal. It's very definitely 00:31:49.640 --> 00:31:53.960 real. It's one of the four basic constituents 00:31:53.960 --> 00:31:58.039 of the universe. Matter, space, time, and energy. 00:31:58.660 --> 00:32:01.460 Empty space, even if it's got no matter, no energy 00:32:01.460 --> 00:32:05.359 in it, is still real. The reason is it loads 00:32:05.359 --> 00:32:09.319 an antenna. That's what Hertz and Maxwell discovered 00:32:09.319 --> 00:32:14.240 back in the 1850 times. It's the loading of space. 00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:17.400 I like to imagine it as a bowl full of jelly. 00:32:17.980 --> 00:32:20.420 The whole universe is a big bowl full of jelly, 00:32:20.900 --> 00:32:25.140 rubbery jelly. And when the RF that comes out 00:32:25.140 --> 00:32:28.579 of your radio shakes the electrons in your antenna, 00:32:29.099 --> 00:32:32.460 it shakes that bowl full of jelly. It resists 00:32:32.460 --> 00:32:35.920 the flow. of the shaking electrons that are making 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:38.880 radio waves. If it wasn't there and if it wasn't 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:45.180 real, an antenna would not radiate. This is a 00:32:45.180 --> 00:32:48.359 metaphor, but I like the metaphor of a bowl full 00:32:48.359 --> 00:32:50.599 of jelly. And hey, by hey, Neil, that ties up 00:32:50.599 --> 00:32:55.400 with Christmas. There you go. His belly shook 00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:59.180 like a bowl full of jelly. You read my mind. 00:33:01.099 --> 00:33:05.240 Anyway. Consider those two resistances that exist 00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:09.400 in all antennas, conductor resistance and radiation 00:33:09.400 --> 00:33:13.019 resistance. Now, for big antennas, the conductor 00:33:13.019 --> 00:33:20.420 resistance is reasonable, but the radiation resistance 00:33:20.420 --> 00:33:27.180 is quite high. And when the RF from your transmitter 00:33:27.180 --> 00:33:30.900 passes through those two resistances, the conductor 00:33:30.900 --> 00:33:35.089 resistance makes wasted heat. But the radiation 00:33:35.089 --> 00:33:38.329 resistance is where the RF energy goes and makes 00:33:38.329 --> 00:33:41.430 radio waves. So we want the radiation resistance 00:33:41.430 --> 00:33:44.390 to be high compared to the conductor resistance. 00:33:44.829 --> 00:33:47.650 That's why we made this antenna out of wide copper 00:33:47.650 --> 00:33:51.630 tape, or why you make magnetic loops out of wide 00:33:51.630 --> 00:33:55.569 big fat copper tubing. because their radiation 00:33:55.569 --> 00:33:59.849 resistance is low. Any small antenna has a low 00:33:59.849 --> 00:34:02.630 radiation resistance. There's less jello around 00:34:02.630 --> 00:34:06.490 it. So it isn't resisted as much by space. So 00:34:06.490 --> 00:34:09.530 it has a low radiation resistance. If you want 00:34:09.530 --> 00:34:12.190 an antenna to be efficient, you have to have 00:34:12.190 --> 00:34:15.289 a high radiation resistance compared to the ohmic 00:34:15.289 --> 00:34:18.670 resistance. It's a ratio between the two. And 00:34:18.670 --> 00:34:21.829 in this antenna, it's good. The wide copper tape 00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:24.900 compared to the approximate 30 ohm radiation 00:34:24.900 --> 00:34:28.559 resistance has much less conductor resistance 00:34:28.559 --> 00:34:31.420 than 30 ohms. So that's why we made it this way. 00:34:31.800 --> 00:34:34.340 And that's how we get it to be an efficient antenna. 00:34:36.280 --> 00:34:40.480 And an antenna is just not an antenna if it's 00:34:40.480 --> 00:34:43.340 not somewhat efficient. You know, if it's not 00:34:43.340 --> 00:34:50.539 going to work, don't bother. Well, Chris, AA4CB 00:34:50.539 --> 00:34:54.679 has a question. We talked about making this bigger 00:34:54.679 --> 00:34:59.199 and getting it into the HF bands, but Chris wants 00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:01.920 to go the other direction. He wants to know, 00:35:02.360 --> 00:35:06.079 could this be scaled to use on UHF, maybe on 00:35:06.079 --> 00:35:11.960 440? Oh, why, of course. You can buy this copper 00:35:11.960 --> 00:35:16.099 tape. in virtually any size you want. You can, 00:35:16.099 --> 00:35:18.659 in fact, use aluminum tape if you want. Aluminum 00:35:18.659 --> 00:35:21.079 is not that much less conductive than copper. 00:35:21.679 --> 00:35:25.239 And I know the 99 cent store, for example, sells 00:35:25.239 --> 00:35:28.739 aluminum tape. I use it for lots of things. But 00:35:28.739 --> 00:35:31.280 the copper is a little better, so I just used 00:35:31.280 --> 00:35:38.019 it. And I think a 440 antenna made maybe on a 00:35:38.019 --> 00:35:42.110 piece of three quarter inch PVC pipe out of half 00:35:42.110 --> 00:35:45.969 inch copper tape spaced half an inch apart to 00:35:45.969 --> 00:35:51.570 keep the adjacent turn skin loss down would work 00:35:51.570 --> 00:35:54.969 just fine. And you tune it up the same way. Whack 00:35:54.969 --> 00:35:58.110 off the top for a good SWR, whack off both ends 00:35:58.110 --> 00:36:00.590 to get the frequency tuned. Straightforward. 00:36:00.829 --> 00:36:04.690 Tune it up with an antenna analyzer very quickly. 00:36:06.730 --> 00:36:10.380 Okay, Chris, there you go. Maybe that's Project 00:36:10.380 --> 00:36:14.019 for you to get this going over on 70 centimeters. 00:36:14.260 --> 00:36:16.739 Well, if you have a question Give us a call at 00:36:16.739 --> 00:36:19.980 eight five nine and nine eight two seventy three 00:36:19.980 --> 00:36:22.420 seventy three or tweet us It's at ham talk live 00:36:22.420 --> 00:36:25.679 or you can do like Chris did and leave a comment 00:36:25.679 --> 00:36:30.159 here on speaker and we'll pick that up and We'll 00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:32.480 get all your questions answered here. We've got 00:36:32.480 --> 00:36:36.280 a little bit longer to go One thing that I wanted 00:36:36.280 --> 00:36:39.329 to talk to you about. Oh, let me see. Oh He says, 00:36:39.829 --> 00:36:42.429 I'm cheap. I'll slice the tape in half the width. 00:36:42.690 --> 00:36:48.389 Okay. So, one thing that I want to talk about, 00:36:48.550 --> 00:36:51.289 and we've talked about on this show before, is 00:36:51.289 --> 00:36:55.429 just kind of remind people about dealing with 00:36:55.429 --> 00:37:00.090 HOAs and, you know, trying to get permission 00:37:00.090 --> 00:37:06.590 to put up an antenna that maybe isn't quite so 00:37:06.590 --> 00:37:11.139 stealthy. Of course, you've got some options, 00:37:11.139 --> 00:37:14.900 some great options for stealthy antennas, so 00:37:14.900 --> 00:37:18.699 they may not know any better. But just remind 00:37:18.699 --> 00:37:21.699 everybody some of the points that you made, because 00:37:21.699 --> 00:37:25.559 I think you made some great points about ways 00:37:25.559 --> 00:37:29.320 to deal with the HOAs in this kind of situation. 00:37:31.699 --> 00:37:35.199 Oh, yeah. Well, my main key, I have two main 00:37:35.199 --> 00:37:39.969 keys in dealing with HOAs. First of all, make 00:37:39.969 --> 00:37:42.929 antennas that don't look like antennas. You know, 00:37:42.949 --> 00:37:45.550 lots of loading coils and traps and, you know, 00:37:45.809 --> 00:37:49.550 and capacity hats and stingers sticking out in 00:37:49.550 --> 00:37:51.789 all sorts of directions. It's a dead giveaway. 00:37:52.389 --> 00:37:55.369 But make it look like a flagpole or make it look 00:37:55.369 --> 00:37:59.090 like a bird nest. The antenna I've got in my 00:37:59.090 --> 00:38:02.670 backyard, which is an HF double inverted delta, 00:38:04.679 --> 00:38:08.780 It doesn't look like an antenna. It looks like 00:38:08.780 --> 00:38:10.940 a ship's mast. In fact, I always want to hang 00:38:10.940 --> 00:38:13.920 flags on it. Make your antennas so they don't 00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:17.139 look like antennas. And make them look like they 00:38:17.139 --> 00:38:19.980 belong on your roof. You can disguise it as a 00:38:19.980 --> 00:38:24.420 vent pipe. To me, these are important issues. 00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:30.679 why I have another antenna that may come out 00:38:30.679 --> 00:38:34.559 very soon in PQST. It's an inverted delta six 00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:39.539 meter antenna. I've got flags hanging on it. 00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:42.699 And long as you hang patriotic flags on your 00:38:42.699 --> 00:38:46.059 antennas, people don't think they can't tell 00:38:46.059 --> 00:38:52.340 you to take them down. Well, and you know, and 00:38:52.340 --> 00:38:55.480 there's a good approach to that if you do go 00:38:55.480 --> 00:38:58.320 to them and are trying to ask permission there's 00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:02.960 a You know, there's an approach to take Well, 00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:05.400 I don't know that I have any magic formulas about 00:39:05.400 --> 00:39:12.239 the right approach Obviously not not clobbering 00:39:12.239 --> 00:39:15.599 them over the head with with regulations that 00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:19.900 the government has Yes, there are regulations 00:39:19.900 --> 00:39:24.539 about it. I think if you actually want to enter 00:39:24.539 --> 00:39:28.159 into conversations with your HOA people, it's 00:39:28.159 --> 00:39:32.139 got to be about the fact that whatever you do, 00:39:32.440 --> 00:39:35.019 you're sensitive the way things look, just as 00:39:35.019 --> 00:39:39.000 they are, and that you'll be cooperative. But 00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:41.699 that's just what comes off the top of my head. 00:39:42.340 --> 00:39:47.070 That is what I was going for. Don't clobber them 00:39:47.070 --> 00:39:53.150 over the head with all this stuff, because if 00:39:53.150 --> 00:39:56.369 you go in and be cooperative and try to work 00:39:56.369 --> 00:39:58.769 with them, I think your chances are a whole lot 00:39:58.769 --> 00:40:04.010 better. So that's what we're going for. Yeah, 00:40:05.989 --> 00:40:08.710 I've got five antennas right now on my mobile 00:40:08.710 --> 00:40:13.800 home. And we're heavily antenna restricted. deeds 00:40:13.800 --> 00:40:16.500 of covenant saying no antennas, no transmitting, 00:40:16.659 --> 00:40:18.420 yet I've got five of them sitting out there. 00:40:18.679 --> 00:40:21.679 Not one of them looks like an antenna. And if 00:40:21.679 --> 00:40:24.619 it's out there, buried in a tree, or it's lost 00:40:24.619 --> 00:40:27.340 in the backyard, or it's hidden in a vent pipe, 00:40:27.340 --> 00:40:30.500 or it's got flags flying on it, I thought one 00:40:30.500 --> 00:40:33.539 of the funny, the cutest thing, cutest decorations 00:40:33.539 --> 00:40:36.099 to put on an antenna, we don't have them in this 00:40:36.099 --> 00:40:38.539 area, but back on the East Coast, there are, 00:40:39.079 --> 00:40:42.539 there's a particular swallow. forget what it's 00:40:42.539 --> 00:40:45.639 called a blue something or other and they like 00:40:45.639 --> 00:40:50.219 to nest in these little gourd shaped nests and 00:40:50.219 --> 00:40:53.320 this guy has several of them hanging on his antenna 00:40:53.320 --> 00:40:55.920 to disguise it and when the neighbors say what's 00:40:55.920 --> 00:40:58.440 that he says oh that's a that's that's a resting 00:40:58.440 --> 00:41:02.119 new uh a roosting place for the for the swallows 00:41:02.119 --> 00:41:09.519 so blending in is always a way to to make that 00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:12.699 work and then you've come up with all kinds of 00:41:12.699 --> 00:41:16.659 creative ideas for doing that. So John, I think 00:41:16.659 --> 00:41:19.340 we're about out of time here, so I'll let you 00:41:19.340 --> 00:41:22.320 make any final comments and then we're going 00:41:22.320 --> 00:41:25.239 to get going. We do have something a little special 00:41:25.239 --> 00:41:27.400 tonight as we sign off, so we'll get to that 00:41:27.400 --> 00:41:30.519 here in a minute, but any final comments here 00:41:30.519 --> 00:41:35.079 before we go? No, just to tell you that you can 00:41:35.079 --> 00:41:38.320 reach me at Jay Portun. That's my last name, 00:41:38.320 --> 00:41:43.989 Jay. p -o -r -t -u -n -e -jportune at aol .com 00:41:43.989 --> 00:41:49.150 or you can contact me through my website w6nbc 00:41:49.150 --> 00:41:53.210 .com where most of these articles are posted. 00:41:53.349 --> 00:41:56.809 I always put the QST articles up there later. 00:41:58.170 --> 00:42:01.090 And just to give a shameless plug here, and now 00:42:01.090 --> 00:42:05.090 for these important announcements. Many of you 00:42:05.090 --> 00:42:08.840 may, many of you. That's my radio day sticking 00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:12.219 out. Many of you may not know that I recently 00:42:12.219 --> 00:42:16.960 published an Amazon Kindle book, Slot Antennas 00:42:16.960 --> 00:42:20.260 for Ham Radio. If you're interested, and that's, 00:42:20.420 --> 00:42:22.480 of course, been my real love for three years, 00:42:22.579 --> 00:42:25.940 is Slot Antennas. I decided to write it down 00:42:25.940 --> 00:42:31.599 as a book. It's inexpensive on Amazon .com. Just 00:42:31.599 --> 00:42:35.590 go to Amazon .com, search for Kindle book. Slot 00:42:35.590 --> 00:42:39.710 antennas for ham radio and I think I think you'll 00:42:39.710 --> 00:42:41.510 find some designs in there that you might find 00:42:41.510 --> 00:42:45.829 useful All right, very good. Well, we got the 00:42:45.829 --> 00:42:48.349 shameless plug -in and thank you for that and 00:42:48.349 --> 00:42:51.969 I'm sure that's Some excellent information. So 00:42:51.969 --> 00:42:54.849 we'll have to check that out Well, thank you 00:42:54.849 --> 00:42:57.389 so much for coming back. We appreciate it and 00:42:57.389 --> 00:43:00.590 and we'll look forward to the the creative idea 00:43:00.590 --> 00:43:06.900 you have next time All the best best 73 is what 00:43:06.900 --> 00:43:13.780 you shouldn't say Well, that is a wrap for this 00:43:13.780 --> 00:43:16.260 week's edition of HamTalk Live. Thanks to my 00:43:16.260 --> 00:43:20.960 guest, John Portun, W6NBC, and everybody out 00:43:20.960 --> 00:43:23.340 there in cyberspace for listening and calling 00:43:23.340 --> 00:43:26.460 in, typing in rather, we had typing in tonight, 00:43:27.159 --> 00:43:30.960 and invite you back in two weeks on Thursday, 00:43:31.079 --> 00:43:34.820 January 7th at 9 p .m. Eastern Time. I'm gonna 00:43:34.820 --> 00:43:38.940 take Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off, so 00:43:38.940 --> 00:43:41.860 it'll be two weeks before we're... back but Thursday 00:43:41.860 --> 00:43:45.739 January 7th I'll be back with another episode 00:43:45.739 --> 00:43:49.420 and you can find our upcoming guests over at 00:43:49.420 --> 00:43:52.920 HamTalkLive .com and if you like the show please 00:43:52.920 --> 00:43:56.260 leave us a review that'll help others find us 00:43:56.260 --> 00:43:59.820 faster and so we're going to sign off here tonight 00:43:59.820 --> 00:44:03.219 but first we're going to close this show with 00:44:03.219 --> 00:44:08.880 a clip from episode number 44 where Brian Lynn, 00:44:09.159 --> 00:44:12.900 KD0HI from the Christian Amateur Radio Fellowship 00:44:12.900 --> 00:44:17.639 Net, talked about the meaning of 75. So since 00:44:17.639 --> 00:44:19.659 it's almost Christmas, I thought that was worth 00:44:19.659 --> 00:44:22.460 listening to again, so it's just a couple of 00:44:22.460 --> 00:44:25.960 minutes. So we're going to close with Brian from 00:44:25.960 --> 00:44:30.940 episode 44. So for now this is Neil Rapp WB9VPG 00:44:30.940 --> 00:44:36.699 saying 7 3 7 5 and may the good DX be yours and 00:44:36.699 --> 00:44:40.579 Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. 00:44:41.480 --> 00:44:45.360 So Brian we've been talking for a few weeks here 00:44:45.360 --> 00:44:48.539 on on email and I kind of told you a little bit 00:44:48.539 --> 00:44:50.480 of the story here when I started doing the show 00:44:50.480 --> 00:44:55.000 in February I started off with coming up with 00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:57.559 you know some of the things that I wanted to 00:44:57.559 --> 00:45:00.559 do some little catchphrases and stuff and and 00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:02.559 so one of the things I always did was I signed 00:45:02.559 --> 00:45:09.630 off with both 73 and 75 then may the good DX 00:45:09.630 --> 00:45:12.510 be yours now that may the good DX be yours is 00:45:12.510 --> 00:45:16.090 kind of a play on the old WKRP in Cincinnati 00:45:16.090 --> 00:45:20.070 newsman Les Nessman that always signed off with 00:45:20.070 --> 00:45:23.550 may the good news be yours so I kind of changed 00:45:23.550 --> 00:45:26.630 that around and as hams we know what 73 means 00:45:26.630 --> 00:45:31.349 it's best wishes but a lot of people have asked 00:45:31.349 --> 00:45:36.829 me and and I admit I did this on purpose What 00:45:36.829 --> 00:45:42.250 75 means and I've had people go and look up all 00:45:42.250 --> 00:45:44.969 these old Western Union message codes and everything 00:45:44.969 --> 00:45:47.710 and they're like We can't find anything about 00:45:47.710 --> 00:45:50.809 75. We can't find anything about 75. What does 00:45:50.809 --> 00:45:54.610 75 mean? So tonight I thought I would finally 00:45:54.610 --> 00:45:58.190 reveal on the show although I've answered a few 00:45:58.190 --> 00:46:02.449 emails here and there what 75 means and and you're 00:46:02.449 --> 00:46:07.000 the guy to Fill everybody in on this. So, tell 00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:10.480 our audience what 75 means and what its history 00:46:10.480 --> 00:46:13.340 is. Well, you certainly have gotten the same 00:46:13.340 --> 00:46:15.360 question we have received a number of times. 00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.380 75 means, may God bless you and yours. And you're 00:46:20.380 --> 00:46:22.699 right, it's in addition to the old telegraphy 00:46:22.699 --> 00:46:25.679 codes popular in the 19th century. The neat thing 00:46:25.679 --> 00:46:28.539 is, if you're doing this with a key, It's 10 00:46:28.539 --> 00:46:30.840 quick keystrokes versus over 60 if you spell 00:46:30.840 --> 00:46:34.500 it out. So obviously, telegraphers benefit there 00:46:34.500 --> 00:46:36.800 to use that. We don't know how far back it goes. 00:46:38.500 --> 00:46:40.340 The CARF group has been around for 50 years. 00:46:40.360 --> 00:46:42.940 It was started at the North American Christian 00:46:42.940 --> 00:46:46.980 Convention in Louisville, Kentucky, 1966. There 00:46:46.980 --> 00:46:50.969 are 50 hams. members in that original year. 31 00:46:50.969 --> 00:46:53.250 of those now have gone on to be silent keys, 00:46:53.670 --> 00:46:55.809 but I had the opportunity to speak with one the 00:46:55.809 --> 00:46:58.130 other night, one of our original founding members, 00:46:58.190 --> 00:47:01.269 and he said 75 has been with the organization 00:47:01.269 --> 00:47:04.309 as long as he's been with it, which is 50 years. 00:47:05.030 --> 00:47:08.190 He doesn't remember when we didn't use it, and 00:47:08.190 --> 00:47:10.969 he also fully believes that it was used by some 00:47:10.969 --> 00:47:13.599 other organization. prior to our using it, but 00:47:13.599 --> 00:47:16.820 he could not remember back those 50 years. Now, 00:47:16.820 --> 00:47:19.900 we did look up and see that the first CARF newsletter 00:47:19.900 --> 00:47:24.460 was signed with 75 back in September of 1966. 00:47:25.119 --> 00:47:27.539 Thank you so much for having us on, especially 00:47:27.539 --> 00:47:30.260 here around Christmas time, a very special time 00:47:30.260 --> 00:47:32.840 for the Christian Amateur Radio Fellowship Network. 00:47:32.960 --> 00:47:51.579 Thank you very much, Neil. Thanks for watching!