Posts

Showing posts with the label Amateur Radio Blogs

Simple Antennas for the Hawaii Amateur Radio Operator--a continuing series

Do you remember your first amateur radio antenna?  I certainly do.  It was ugly, fed by cheap RG-58 coax, and connected to my first rig, the Heathkit HW-101.  I called it a dipole only because each side of the Budwig connector had 33-feet of 20-gauge wire attached.  The ends of this homebrew skyhook were attached to two trees about 35-feet high in the back yard of the teachers' cottage near the Honokaa High School.  That was 36 years ago--a time long gone except for my memory of many contacts as a novice and techncian class operator.  I surely had fun with this crude antenna.  It was home made and it was my own. Now jump forward to 2012.  I've been a general, advanced, and extra class ham since those glory days 3 1/2 decades ago.  I've gone through many rigs (most of them second-hand and well-used) and several types of antennas.  Yet, I still haven't lost the excitement of those novice class days.  For me, designing and erecting antennas are still fun, educational, an