My First...
David McKinnon (N3BIF)
on
March 3, 2004
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Ahhh, Nostalgia. Over the past few years, it has become commonplace for hams to think back with fondness about their first rig, station, QSL card received, and most recently keys. Quite often the post is accompanied by the "I wish I still had my..." statement. To date, however, I have yet to hear anyone mention these desires in conjunction with their First Antenna.
Hmm, used to be a beer ad, that, as its catch phrase, said, "You always remember your first." So how about we dust off the way back machine (if you don't know don't ask) and think back to those exciting days of "I don't care how bad it looks or works nor how inferior the design is just get me on the AIR!" and have some fun with the bad and ugly world of first antennas.
All right I'll go first. My first ham antenna was a random length doublet. Put up in the rain of course. It ran from an apple tree to a maple tree with a mimosa tree as a center support. The average height above grade was about 15 feet. I had scrounged about 6 sections of bare copper wire solid 12ga. totaling about 95 feet. These were spliced together with a propane torch and acid core solder. Once assembled I found the center and cut it in half (this is the doublet part) I then attached about 60 feet of RG-58 again with the torch. The feed line was made up of three lengths of coax of varying lengths and spliced together also with the torch and brought into the house and hooked to a homebrew 80 meter transceiver, fortunately I only used it for receive as I never got up the nerve to transmit. Perhaps I should use some modeling software to see how bad an antenna it was.
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My First...
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by AD5X on March 3, 2004
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I bought a used 14AVQ vertical for $10 and installed it with only a ground rod (no radials). Fed it with about 100 feet of RG-58 and drove it with a Knightkit T60 transmitter. I didn't know enough to know that this was a very poor installation (I was in 9th grade), but I sure had a ball with it!
Phil - AD5X
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by WV8WC on March 3, 2004
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My first was an ugly contraption, that's for sure. Nevertheless, it got me on the air and I made several contacts with it. My parent's yard wasn't all that large, so we didn't have enough space to fully set up an 80M dipole, but we made a rough approximation. My dad and I cut some 14 gauge copper wire to 80M and attached the center to a mast we bolted to the side of the house near my room. One leg stretched straight out from there to the corner of the yard, the other at about a 50 degree angle to a large tree on the other side of the yard. Rough as it was, it took freezing rain, snow, and high winds for about six years before I finally had to come back and cut it down.
The same mast shared a ground plane antenna cut for 2M, which I mounted to the mast by placing a plastic insultator at the top which had a hole in it just right for an SO-239. Ran the cable down through the mast and out a hole in the side, and pulled it tight. The tension kept the antenna in place, and that one survived the elements as well. Maybe someday I can built a setup like that again, only this time I'll get it right. :)
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My First...
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by K9DI on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a 2M J-pole made with half inch copper pipe. It worked very well. Up until I donated it to a local ham club
73
de
Wayne K9DI
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by WR8D on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a weird looking V laying on its side. It was cut for 40m cw. I'll never forget thinking "this thing actually works" Hi Hi. I crave the wonder and friendship of 20 years ago. You folks know what i'm talking about, the "hamspirit". I honestly don't see it in the new folks around here.
73
John WR8D
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by KC2MLF on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was built from the diagram in Now You're Talking! It took me four weeks to build, and I built it very well. It did not work, however. Did I quit? No, not at all, in fact.
By the way, I'm one of those "newcomers" who supposedly lacks the ham spirit, yet I build and experiment with many homebrew antennas despite multiple failures.
Did I mention I was in 10th grade?
73,
KC2MLF
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by W3NRL on March 3, 2004
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i built my first dipole (6 meters) and made my first contact...In the UK Sheffied England. I was thrilled then i had a pile up there after for about 25 mins, now
i know i was thrilled!!!!! Now i love building antennas.
w3nrl
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My First...
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by W1AWB on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a 40 meter dipole fed with 72 ohm twinline....I had an old DX40 I had bought with every penny I could scrape together so when faced with the coax connector on the back of the DX 40 I took one of the little rubber bands off my braces, jammed one bare lead from the twinline in the the center of the connector and used the little rubber band to hold the other lead fast to the outside. Worked a lot of 10 wpm cw that way. My next project
was a 15 meter cubical quad I made out of 25 cent bamboo fishing poles and plywood and stuck on an old 10' piece of TV mast. I then tied the mast to a porch railing off my mom and dad's upstairs bedroom. I then tied another piece of clothesline to the wooden boom and let it hang down to the ground so I could run outside and turn the thing in one direction or another. It worked pretty good.
Andy W1AWB (formerly WA4YLL)
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by WIRELESS on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a 75 meter dipole up about 45 ft. feed with real open wire with one of those link coupled tuners found in old handbooks. It was the best multiband antenna I ever had. It was simple and worked. I don't get these other screwball antennas that are just a variation of a simple dipole.
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by NI0C on March 3, 2004
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Good discussion starter! Our antennas are the most important elements of our radio stations.
My first was an end-fed sloping length of wire from my second-story bedroom window to the power pole across the alley. (The utility company lineman took it down at least twice). It was about 70 feet of stranded copper wire, probably 14 gage. My best Dx (from St. Louis) with this antenna was Los Angeles and Montreal, both on the 40 meter Novice band with 75 watts (input) and a couple of crystals. I only used it for three months, because I upgraded to General and replaced it with a 20 meter folded dipole made of TV twinlead.
73 de Chuck NI0C
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by W5EN on March 3, 2004
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LOL OM I am still using a ground mounted 14AVQ, purchased from a local ham 14 years ago for 25 dollars. I have over 250 countries confirmed with that as my only "skyhook". Of course I do have 8x66" radials under it, but still works great.
73
Steve
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by WB2TQC on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a 15m Dipole up behind the curtain rods in the living room. They were actually mounted on roughened timber about 3 or 4 feet from the windows. My "shack" was also behind the curtain. For about 2 months or so I sat directly under one end of the dipole and made many local contacts and some great friends. I think I STILL glow in the dark though.
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by W6TH on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was called a Spider Antenna and that is what it looked like. Stretched from one tree to another at the length of 25 feet and then formed to look like a Spider Web, about 200 feet of wire fed in the center. Believe I got this from Hugo Gernsbach back in the year of 1937. The transmitter was a TNT self excited oscillator using a number 45 tube. The feed line which was a single wire was hooked directly to the tank circuit of the oscillator with a number 47 pilot light to see if the antenna was taking RF to the antenna. No tuners back in those days that I can remember. The receiver was a home made Tuned Radio Frequency (TRF) using 3 number 27 tubes.
These were the good old days and no store bought stuff. We were a bunch of scroungers back then, scrounging parts from ole radios, working or not.
.:
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by W8OB on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a hy-gain doublet kit cut for 40 meters. I spent the better part of a saturday un-tangling the copper wire that I somehow had gotten into a real rats nest. When my Father came home from work he nailed together a wood frame tripod that we attached to the lower roof of the ranch house a whopping 15 feet up in the air. The antenna was a inverted vee on its side. I waited for my novice license to arrive before tuning the antenna. I found I had cut the wires about 3 feet too long so ended up making mucho trips on the roof. Ah but that first cw contact with that antenna I could not have been happier if it was a full size 6 el 40m yagi. For a dumb 13 year old kid starting out this was the entry point for me in my career in electronics. Later just before getting my general using money saved up from delivering newspapers I splurged and purchased a 2 el gotham quad. Man did I work the dx with that.
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by W0FM on March 3, 2004
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In 1961 I received my first antenna as an "atta-boy" gift from O.J. "Mac" McQuigg, WØQHL, for passing my Novice exam. Mac was a broadcast engineer at KSD-TV here in St. Louis and I knew him through my Dad. The antenna was a 40 meter dipole cut for the Novice band with ceramic insulators and lots of electrical tape on the center connection. I strung it about 12 feet in the air, between two peach trees in the back yard. The 50 ft of RG-58 coax was just enough to reach the Heathkit DX-60 via my bedroom window. I was thrilled to find out that it would also resonate on 15 meters because that was the only other crystal I owned at the time.
"Mac" later helped me build several other antennas from scratch, a fascination for which I still harbor today.
Have fun!
Terry, WØFM
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by KF6JZC on March 3, 2004
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I have two first antennas. A copper J-pole that works just fine on both 2 meters and 70 cm. The other was a 10 meter ground plane made out of speaker wire and soldered to an SO 239. That one measured 2 - 1 SWR or less over the entire 10 meter band using an MFJ 269 antenna analyzer. Now that one really surprised me since the antenna was on the ground on the back patio of my Condo. It was mounted using plastic insulators and a rubber band to hold the antenna up and bricks to hold the radials taught.
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by KA4KOE on March 3, 2004
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The VERY first antenna I constructed consisted of serveral aluminum tent poles put together, with wire wrapped around them. The whole thing was 20' high and leaned against the house. I was about 11 years old. The wire was clipped to the antenna of a 100mW CB walkie talkie base station.
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by N7NRA on March 3, 2004
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Mmmmm... Lotsa antennas over the years. I believe my first ham freq antenna was simply a wire strung under the eaves along the back of the apartment building at the top of the second story level. First contact was on 80M CW from the LA area to a gent mobiling near San Fran. with a Heathkit HW108 QRP rig in the late 70's.
Having been a CB'er in the mid 70's, I had a number of leftover pieces of equipment that have served as ham radios, accessories and antennas over the years. I used a recrystaled SSB CB for both 10M CW (set to AM to transmit, set to SSB to receive) and SSB. I also had a Wilson Alpha V-5/8 that was a GREAT vertical, and a Radio Shack 3-element yagi that worked well. I still have and use a Starduster CB antenna on 10M, but I don't think it works as well as the Wilson. I also still have and occasionally use the recrystaled CB. I used it for my first 10M SSB contact, connected to the Starduster which was sitting on my driveway on its 3 legs. Contacted a gent on the Illinois/Indiana border from my home in Mesa, AZ, using 15W! What a kick!
I also used to build 2M and 220MHz multi-element quads using dowel rods and scrap wire. They worked very well. I currently use a random wire with tuner on 10-160 with my Icom 706 MkIIG, but will soon have a Butternut 9-band vertical.
Fun stuff! Good post!
Best to all,
Stew
N7NRA
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by KOWAL on March 3, 2004
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Well let's see...
My first antenna was (is) a 20 meter dipole. Hung by way of a slingshot. An Elemer came over to help me put in up and shot the first 1/2oz lead weight across my yard through the trees, into the neighbors yard and over their house, it then got stuck on a vent pipe on the roof. Like two kids asking if we could have our ball back after breaking a window, we went over to see if we could retrive the line. (Both of us are 50+) He said go ask them, I said you shot it, he side they are your neighbors and I said let's just break the line, which he agreed.
After a few more tried we got the 20 meter dipole up about 25 feet. I still need to take about 5 inches off each end, but my first 20 meter antenna is waiting for the FCC to publish my Call Sign so I can use it.
You see I just passed my test for General last Saturday. So I guess the memories I am making are the ones 10 years form now I will be thinking of, but isn't that the way it is suppose to be?
I very much enjoy all of your comments and hope to hear you on my rig soon.
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by W3BUG on March 3, 2004
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My first was a 10 meter Radio Shack mag mount stuck to a 11x14 cookie tin sitting on the bed in our spare bedroom. Worked Cypress, Texas W5HLM on my first contact ! I am located in Belair, Maryland. I continued to work 10 meters and totaled a whopping 7 contacts using less than 80 watts. The DX was coming in too . . . . . . HA3, YU7, G4, I8 and a LU5. I was in heaven !!!! This was my first taste of ham radio after passing my test earlier that day. Boy O boy, what a way to start off. If I wouldn't have seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it. 73 all.
Scott - W3BUG
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by N6AJR on March 3, 2004
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My first was a Fan dipole for 80-10 meters, including 15.
I lived in a 1 story 5 plex appartment and this sat abovve the roof about 2 inches on little kids alphabet blocks.
the 80 went the length of the ridge and then bent down the sides a bit, the rest were "fanned" out beneath. I used this with a Whooping 100 watts on a FT 101 ee, and had a ball, also did a bit of mars with this.. and I had a real phone patch too ( hello ma, over)
In 1978 this was a great station, right down to the 5 band counterpoise I had running around the yard. actually a good antenna , made of magnet wire unrolled off a transformer..
73 tom
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by W9PMZ on March 3, 2004
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N6AJR - Mr. Fan Dipole
Why doesn't that suprise me about your first antenna?
(I had one to....)
73,
Carl - W9PMZ
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by K0BG on March 3, 2004
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My first transmitter was a Heathkit AT-1 (this was before Tom Lish was born and hense no "fan" dipoles. By the way Tom, it's geeting old!). Our dad wouldn't let my brother and I drill a hole for the antenna wire, so we taped large pieces of aluminum (actually Bud chassis covers) on each side of a casement window. The antenna was a long wire about 90 feet long made from magnet wire from an old electromagnetic speaker. It worked well enough to make several hundred contacts before the wire broke in a rain storm.
Ah, those were the days.
Alan, KØBG
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by W2LJ on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a simple piece of 14 guage stranded copper wire that ran from my bedroom in my parent's house to the apex of our unattached garage. It was about 45 feet long and I fed it with a piece of coax. I soldered both the shield and center conductor together (at both ends) to make a super well insulated hunk of wire that I could pass through a crack in the aluminum storm window; and then into my room. That went to an antenna tuner and then to My Drake 2-NT transmitter and my Heathkit HR-168Ø receiver. I was too new to know it wasn't supposed to have worked! I had that antenna for a good year or two before replacing it with a multi-band dipole. I still have fond memories of that antenna as it got my signal to Europe, all over the US of A, and to South America and the Caribbean, including the little country of Anguilla, where I worked Iris Colvin who was on a DXpedition with YASME. THAT was a thrill. Even as a newbie Ham, I knew who the Colvins were!
73 de Larry W2LJ
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by KD7UBP on March 3, 2004
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for my first antenna, how about a two element quad made for 11 meters . got some free fiberglass poles and used a bit of #12 wire from my father in law. darned if the thing didn't work.
my first ham antenna was/is a 2 meter j pole made from 1/2" copper. works great at the ripe old age of 1 year old. thanks to aa7mt for the analyzer check.
just copied it for 6 meters but don't know how it works due to too much snow to put it up.
I always have and most likely always will love antennas.
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by WN3VAW on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was a long wire than ran out my bedroom window, around the side of the house, across the garage roof, and out to a backyard tree. It was a great SWL antenna, but not having a tuner, I later replaced it with a dipole when I got licensed; the dipole ran from a tree in the front yard to the peak of the house (feedpoint) and out to the original backyard tree. Never got QRV too much (I was 15 and my dad never thought I'd stick with the hobby, so he was against my buying or building much of anything... but that's another thread) but it did work. Kinda.
That dipole followed us from NNJ to EPA, and lasted about another year when most of it disappeared in a storm. I was told that it was hit by lightning and vaporzied! (Looking back, considering that there were no scorch marks or ruined electronics, I think I was fibbed too, but that too's another story)
The first antenna I purchased for HF use was a "classic" though. A 40 - 10 Gotham Vertical. Even without radials, it worked very well on 40 & 15 -- when it stayed intact, the thin aluminum always did have a habit of breaking! Sure wish I had the directions laying around to recreate one of those today (but with better aluminum!)
73, ron wn3vaw
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by KK7WN on March 3, 2004
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My first antenna was an end fed copper wire about 60 ft long and 30 feet high. It ran from my second story bedroom window to a power pole in the backyard( power company took it down whenever they came by!). My ground was thru the house steam heating system. Was a great SWL antenna and not to bad as a novice antenna. Could work Europe from Mass. quite well. A big prize was a station in the Solomon Islands!
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by AB0KD on March 4, 2004
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My first antenna was 30 feet of wire for an S-38D. The various indoor antenna configurations all carried risk of people being clothes lined if they forgot to look where they were going.
Once licensed, I used a ground mounted 18V with no radials or ground rod, a line to a water pipe, an HM-102, and an SR-500. While in apartments over the years, the set up worked nice for the midnight to early am field day shift on 40m. A set spare of insulators for the 18V are on the shelf waiting for some spare time and a nice day.
Finally resolved the 18V RFI problems from hit and miss section connections with hose clamps.
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by ON4SSC on March 4, 2004
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My first antenna (which I still have and use, before installing a multiband dipole or vertical) is a simple 20m dipole, which goes through 3 rooms inside my appartement. I have worked lots of european countries with it. With 5 watts (ft-817) I have worked south of spain. Not bad for such a "crap" antenna and such a low power. I never expected the guy to asnwer me, that's for sure. One day I even worked a TA with a simple wire thrown through the window and only 10 watts. My rigs are the Kenwood TS-140 (which I use at minimum power, about 10w) and the Yaesu FT-817 (my prefered rig).
73 de Stephane ON4SSC
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by GM0IIO on March 4, 2004
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I will never forget my first non-wire antenna. It was a Hygain 12AVS on the roof of the house in Detroit. I went nuts and put 100 radials on it and covered the roof (invisible wire). It was such a thrill, I still remember working K8NHW/XV5, and have the QSL ! It was during a rain storm and I left the car windows open. Car got soaked, but I got Vietnam !
73,
George ex WA8QAG
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by KE4WLE on March 4, 2004
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I happen to be one of the newcomers as well... and I think you're wrong ;-)
Way back in the day (only 8 years ago) My first antenna was a 5/8 j-pole made from 300 ohm twin-lead - I purchased it at a hamfest the day after I passed my exam. My first homebuilt was a 1/2" copper cactus jpole with excellent SWR, it now sits in my shed because it was replaced by a ringo ranger.
While you could just go buy an antenna, I find it interesting to build your own, if nothing else you learn a few new lessons each time.
R-
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by KB2SDR on March 4, 2004
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I was about 18 years old and in the process of becoming a ham. I was really big into using ssb on the cb, using a cobra 2000. I had a copy of the 1987 handbook and found the cubic quad intriguing. I lived in Queens NY at the time and lived on the 3rd floor of an apartment building. I had 20 feet of mast mounted to the side of the roof exit. I ductaped a 10 foot piece of mast pipe to the vertical section. It looked like a big cross. I had gotten the formula for the driven section and calculated the length and strung it up. It looked like a big kite. The fun part was when I wanted to contact DX I would run up to the roof and turn it in the direction of the DX. GOOD TIMES!!!!!
73
Jason
KB2SDR
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by N4KIT on March 4, 2004
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My first antenna, as a newly minted Tech + and a used Kenwood '530S begging to be used, was a 10 meter dipole made from 12 ga. stranded red automotive hookup wire (had a 25' spool handy), with insulators cut from 1/4" Lexan (had some handy from a church project). The feedline was 50 ohm thin ethernet network cable (had some handy from a network re-cable at work), which was adapted from BNC to PL with Radio Shack adapter (had to buy that). This whole contraption was strung between two hanging plant ceiling hooks in the bonus room (then my shack) about 4 feet over my head. I shudder to think what an RF safety eval might have revealed!
Anyway, the very first Q was with K9MQT, Dave in Florida, followed by YY2GPM, Lorenzo in Venesuela. I went on to work a bunch of 10m DX with that antenna!
73 Chris N4KIT
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by WA9BXE on March 4, 2004
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130 ft. dipole made with #22 insulated wire fed with 300 ohm twinlead. Darn thing kept breaking and I couldn't figure out why (laws of gravity and my early adolscence did not compute).
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by N6TZ on March 4, 2004
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My first antenna was a 40 meter 300 ohm dipole. It was made entirely out of salvaged 300 ohm ribbon line in 1957. One end was tied to the power pole at the back of the yard and the other was tied to a 6 or 8 foot piece of lath wedged in some bricks on the roof of the single story house. How many out there know what a piece of lath is? Fed it with a home brew two tube rig and received on a Hallicrafters S-38. 150 volts on the code key right out in the open.
Hal, N6TZ
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by KF4FAJ on March 4, 2004
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Mine was a 10 meter dipole made from a piece of electrical zip cord. I split it down the middle and soldered it to the coax. Used fishing line to tie up the ends. One end to a tree, up as high as I could reach from a six foot step ladder! Tied the other end to the fifty foot crank up tower I used for the TV antenna. The coax was only ten feet long so I had to take the IC-745 out into the yard to work. Great fun but soon my father-inlaw took pity on me and gave me a cushcraft R3 verticle. And yes these days the TV antenna is on a twenty foot pole and the tower has antennas from hf thru 1296.
Great thread, Rex
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by WB2IMH on March 5, 2004
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OK guys ... here's one for you. I was 12 and I "acquired" one of my mom's aluminum clothes line props (if you don't know what that is, just ask), cut it to length for 6 meters, attached it to a bamboo pole. Then I rode by bike to the local hardware store and bought an antenna mount for a pitched roof. Got back home, climbed on top of the garage at night and attached the mount in the middle of the roof. Up went the antenna the next day with four guy wires, attached about 50 feet of RG-58 ... and ran it back to the house into my back bedroom. I remember staying awake all night listening for some kind of signal ... anything at all ... and to my amazement, I did hear some local guys. At that time 6 meters was very active ... talking about the early '60s. Anyway, I did have some luck with that antenna until mom saw it a few days later and down it came. She needed to hang the wet clothes ...
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by KA7BTV on March 5, 2004
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My first antenna, circa 1974, was a Random-Wire, about 50-60ft. long. Ran it directly to the antenna terminal on the receiver - a Knightkit Span Master. Did lots of SWL work with that combo. Got my amateur license in 1977 and went on to put up several antennas which shouldn't have worked at all but they did because the magic was there and I didn't know any better. :)
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by KC8VWM on March 5, 2004
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My first antenna was when I was an SWL in 1974 ? I dunno , when did the movie Planet of the Apes first come out? - It was around that time....
It was attached to a Stromberg Carlson Floor Model SW Receiver I had in the garage. I remember stringing up some wire over the garage and then to the top of the house as high as I could get it.
I had unwound the wire from a transformer originating from a previous radio "autopsy" I performed on a broken transistor radio.
It was at least 75 feet long and I remember the excitement of tuning in to WWV observing the signal increase this wire made.
I was rather astonished at the new signals I could hear while tuning in distant signals with that green "magic eye" on the front panel of my dusty SW receiver.
I must have stayed out in that garage with nothing but the light of the glowing tubes for half the night "looking" for faint signals from distant and foreign lands.
It all seemed rather magical to me at the time. But I was hooked on antennas ever since.
73
Charles - KC8VWM
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My First...
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by VE7TL on March 5, 2004
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I couldn't afford the wire so I "liberated" some twisted pair from the garbage cans of the local telephone company, used buttons from my mother's sewing kit for insulators and used more twisted pair for the feedline. It was cut for 40M, about 15" high and ran from the house eves to a telephone pole in the alley. Transmitter was a 6AQ5 "borrowed" from my parents broadcast radio and the receiver was a rebuilt Command set BC 455. One morning I worked a KX6 on Okinawa with 5W output. Those were the days!
Paul, VE7TL
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My First...
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by N7NRA on March 5, 2004
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The farther down you read, the more this thread sounds like that Monty Python routine where they're trying to outdo each other regarding the poverty of their youth.
"...We got up each morning, three hours before we went to sleep...", etc.
Fun reading!
73,
Stew
N7NRA
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RE: My First...
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by KC8VWM on March 5, 2004
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Yeah, I remember being so poor I had to hand forge the tubes for my SW radio out of some old pickle jars I found in the trash.I ripped out some tungsten wire from an old rusty toaster to make my own tube filiments.
I made a nice cabinet enclosure out of a cardboard box that a homeless person gave to me. He said he once slept on it, but it still worked just fine.
I powered the radio using a hamster wheel attached to it. Similar to the one used by the professor on gilligans island to power his radio. But I had to find a rat to power it. This was not too much of a problem because I used to live in the ghetto and the rats where plentiful under my bed.
After eating my dinner (Two peas on a plate served with possum leftovers from last week) I would turn on my home constructed radio and listen all night long when it was below zero degrees in the dark while wearing my raggedy old stained clothes.
Yeah, the good old days..
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My First...
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by W3DCG on March 5, 2004
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200' random wire zig zagging vertically through the branches of 4 trees, height limited to how high I could throw a rock+kite string drag resistance.
2 hours later this crazy antenna reached South Africa with 5W on 20m CW. Boy conditions sure were magical and enchanting way back in Novemer 2001. Got lucky with some a colinear coincidental major lobe heading.
Worked well to the West coast 30m, as well, but wreaked complete havoc with my home security system on 40m with greater than 30W.
Ahhh, the "good ole days."
hi.
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RE: My First...
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by VK3IL on March 6, 2004
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My first antenna was a loonnngggg wire criss-crossed from one side of the backyard fence to the other etc down the length of the back yard used with an old WW2 No. 19 set - it was a terrific Rx antenna.
The second antenna was a helical whip for 80M mounted on the back of a Toyota Celica fed with a FT-301D. This set-up permitted me to work mobile on a drive around Australia back to Melbourne.
Seems wire features prominently.
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My First...
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by SP8HPW on March 6, 2004
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My first antenna was the famous G5RV. It worked fine aspecialy on 20 meters band. I made a lot of contacts (in 70-ties and in the frst half of 80-ties), including such stations like KV4AA, VS5MC, 9U5WR, 8P6AH. The equipment was composed by the home-made TX with one 807 tube in the PA (30 Wtts out, who remebers that?) and a "veteran of II WW" RX BC 342N. The antenna was great. My neext antennas were W8JK, ZL-Beam, HB9CV, Delta (one and two elements), Inverted V-ee for 80 meters. All the antennas were built by myself and I liked this. At that time the equipment was enough to make contacts with all the continents (my DXCC # 29554). I think that even today the G5RV antenna would be a good choice for many hams.
73! Jerzy - SP8HPW
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RE: My First...
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by KC8VWM on March 6, 2004
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>>>mounted on the back of a Toyota Celica <<<
You used to be dirt poor too huh?
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RE: My First...
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by KB6NU on March 6, 2004
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My first ham antenna was a 14AVQ mounted on a 10-foot pipe sunk just outside my basement shack. It seemed to work without radials, so I didn't bother to install any. I probably should have,though. It would have worked a lot better.
The first antenna I actually built from scratch was a "halo" antenna for 2m AM. At the time (early 70s), a lot of the guys in our club were fairly active on 2m AM. I bought a Benton Harbor Lunchbox, built the halo antenna from plans in the Handbook, mounted it on the roof on a TV tripod and mast, and I was in business. To this day, I'm amazed that it worked.
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My First...
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by N4NSS on March 7, 2004
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My first antenna was a 130 foot wire strung from the gable to a pole. It had a wire soldered to it at about 20 feet from the gable. This wire came into the window. I used a screwdriver, which the wire was clipped to and put the end of the screwdriver into the so239 hole ot the xmitter. To receive, I just moved the screwdriver to the receiver. I made some good contacts that first day too!
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My First...
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by KB0GU on March 8, 2004
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Ran a coax out of the apartment bedroom under the carpet to the front door, nicked the lower door jamb to get it through without severe pinching, attached the center conductor of the coax to the downspout of a rain gutter at ground level, and drove a ground rod right there to attach the braid to. Worked best when dry.
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My First...real antenna
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by WA2JJH on March 9, 2004
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18AVQ,bought it used, and the 80M assembly was FUBAR.
They used to sell them at Lafayette Radio Electronics
for $89! the rice shot up to above $100. So getting a well used one for $25, was a steal(I had to remove 75M trap, it only had 25khz of bandwidth)
Up on the roof and a few radials, I was in business.
When 20, 10M and 15M were hot, the antenna seemd to be a real performer. 100KC BANDWIDTH on 40M.
Oh well, you do not expect much from a vertical. I did work Japan on it twice on 10 AND 15m.
It did the job on 40m, from time to time.
1
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RE: My First...real antenna
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by KA4KOE on March 9, 2004
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Charles, sounds like you lived in the rich part of town.
I had to pry one of the fillings out of my teeth to make the detector for a crystal radio.
I found a few pennies on the pavement and pounded the suckers flat. Using the gap in my teeth next to the removed filling, I pulled about 30 feet of nice wire.
Funny how my tongue turned green.
Anyway, I found a razor blade at a crackhouse where the druggies were using it to divide up their cocaine. They were all passed out when I ventured by that night.
I wound my coil using an old bong also found at said crack house.
The rest is DX history.
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My First...
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by KB5LPA on March 11, 2004
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My first antenna was a 10 meter half square. It worked very well and I really did not have it too high in the air. I thought(as well as that antenna worked)that amateur radio contacts would be a breeze. Then I learned about the bottom of a solar cycle! Needless to say I learned how to build multi-band dipoles after that. Much more fun. Still use some random length dipoles fed with 450 ohm ladder line. I enjoy antenna work as my favorite part of the hobby. Still learning too.
73
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My First...
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by K8AG on March 11, 2004
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My first antenna was a MulTee constructed from the W6SAI Handbook back in the early 70s. The antenna was attached to the side of the house and used the house plumbing to a ground. Believe it or not it had a good match on both 80 and 40 meters. I built it with thrown out television twinlead that I found on one of my alley pickin' journeys.
Actually made some contacts. Found out the hard way that my HW-16 on 80 didn't filter out its 2nd harmonic very well. The antenna cooperated by radiating my out of Novice band signal to a ham in the neigborhood who called me on the phone to let me know.
Blissful ignorance. Those were the days.
73,
John Pawlicki, K8AG
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RE: My First...
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by VE9XY on March 11, 2004
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My first antenna was a 300 ohm twin-lead tv wire 2 metre j-pole...that I built last Monday! I tripped one local repeater and made my first contact...but although I could hear another repeater loud and clear, I couldn't trip it. A ham who lived nearby figured out where I lived (although he didn't know my name!) and dropped by to see if I needed any help; when I pulled open the PVC connector I had made for the antenna to show him my homemade choke (I was suspicious of this, as it was my own design), we could see that the fragile twin-lead had broken off on both sides at the feedpoint! I was tripping one repeater on 3 metres of rg58u and a homebrew RF choke, hihi.
By the next evening I had a 2 metre dipole built from 14 gauge stranded copper, and could trip every repeater for 75 kilometres in any direction. That sucker isn't going to pull apart anytime soon. Now, if only my ladder wasn't buried under a metre of snow, I might be able to get an antenna up where I could hit the repeaters 120 klicks out. I think it's time for a copper pipe j-pole.
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My First...
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by WA2JJH on March 14, 2004
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Before I was a ham, I was a SWLer(NATIONAL-173). My pops and I just thought the longer the antenna, the better!
So 60 feet of unsheilded TELCO wire it was! Worked OK by my standards back then. 8 Years old and hearing radio Moscow was a big deal to me.
I found radio Moscows "TAKE" on the news a little strange!
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RE: My First...
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by AH2AK on September 5, 2004
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I can't remember my very first antenna but I do
remember my first "make do" antenna.
I was living in an apartment that was underground
save for about the first 8 feet or so... I couldn't
hit the 2 meter repeater that was about 8 miles
directly in front of my apartment - with my handheld
rubber ducky...
So, I attached the antenna connecter of my handheld
to the window screen of my one and only window via
aligator clips and a short wire.
Presto, I could hit the repeater!
Since then I've played with several other make-shift
antennas, including an indoor, floor level vacumm
dipole about 1/2 inch long... better known as a
100 watt lightbulb. About 6 feet of RG-8 coax.
Furthest contact: 1500 miles.
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