Duh!
Re: Duh!
I don't recall if I ever had to replace the final power amps on my transmitters. It seems as if I did at least once and it was a humongous sized tube that I had a hard time finding. I don't doubt that your finals only lasted a few hours. When you use a rain gutter for an antenna that places a bit of a stress on the amplifiers. Your SWR must have been in the double digits range.
Re: Duh!
Actually, my SWR was usually under 2-1, and most often 1.5-1 or less, and that was without a Tuner.
Some of the bands I used where I needed to use both ends did dictate I finally bought a Tuner.
But my newer radios were all self-tuning to prevent damage to them.
Trying to achieve 1-1 is nearly impossible. Even if you tune to the exact frequency 1.1-1 is considered excellent, but if you tune down the band only a slight bit, it quickly jumps up to 1.5-1 or higher if the band is wide.
Some of the bands I used where I needed to use both ends did dictate I finally bought a Tuner.
But my newer radios were all self-tuning to prevent damage to them.
Trying to achieve 1-1 is nearly impossible. Even if you tune to the exact frequency 1.1-1 is considered excellent, but if you tune down the band only a slight bit, it quickly jumps up to 1.5-1 or higher if the band is wide.
Re: Duh!
I looked it up and 1.01:1 is the theoretical limit. Anything under 1.5:1 is considered good. Some of the antenna farms you described here were pretty exotic and it's hard for me to understand how your SWR naturally could have been anywhere near 1.5, or less. Then again, all I ever played with were wire dipoles. I don't recall what SWR I was getting but as I said I rarely had trouble with the finals on my rig.
Re: Duh!
I've had several antennas with 1.1 to 1 on the exact center of the frequency.
I will admit it is not easy to achieve on a dipole, but is possible.
Much easier to achieve on a mobile or shorter antenna you can reach.
Also, it depends on what band you are talking about too.
Some bands, the bandspread is so wide you are lucky to be under 2.5 to one at the ends of the band, even with a tuner.
Six Meters is one band where we usually used two separate antennas, one for each end of the band.
When I say separate antennas, I mean they both could be connected to a single coax, but then too, when you are this close to the resonant frequency, they will interact with each other.
Moving up to HF though, you can connect each dipole to the center feed like a spiderweb, and only the resonant antenna will work, the rest will help your ears a little bit, and there is some minor SWR you can't knock out due to the mismatched antennas, but the resonant antenna can be tuned down to 1.5 to 1 or lower if you have the patience to do so.
On a spiderweb antenna, the SWR on the non-resonant antenna will be ungodly high, but it doesn't matter because the RF is only pouring out to the one antenna that is resonant.
It has been years since I've messed with any antenna farm, and I about pulled my hair out getting my Butternut Vertical perfectly resonant on all bands with a very low SWR. Then I blew it all when I added the 160 meter kit, and spend days retuning the antenna again. Adding that extra band should not have messed up the entire antenna, but it did.
Probably because I had to use a crazy feed point system of coils that changed everything. Weird, but worked.
I will admit it is not easy to achieve on a dipole, but is possible.
Much easier to achieve on a mobile or shorter antenna you can reach.
Also, it depends on what band you are talking about too.
Some bands, the bandspread is so wide you are lucky to be under 2.5 to one at the ends of the band, even with a tuner.
Six Meters is one band where we usually used two separate antennas, one for each end of the band.
When I say separate antennas, I mean they both could be connected to a single coax, but then too, when you are this close to the resonant frequency, they will interact with each other.
Moving up to HF though, you can connect each dipole to the center feed like a spiderweb, and only the resonant antenna will work, the rest will help your ears a little bit, and there is some minor SWR you can't knock out due to the mismatched antennas, but the resonant antenna can be tuned down to 1.5 to 1 or lower if you have the patience to do so.
On a spiderweb antenna, the SWR on the non-resonant antenna will be ungodly high, but it doesn't matter because the RF is only pouring out to the one antenna that is resonant.
It has been years since I've messed with any antenna farm, and I about pulled my hair out getting my Butternut Vertical perfectly resonant on all bands with a very low SWR. Then I blew it all when I added the 160 meter kit, and spend days retuning the antenna again. Adding that extra band should not have messed up the entire antenna, but it did.
Probably because I had to use a crazy feed point system of coils that changed everything. Weird, but worked.
Re: Duh!
You "hammed" it up like a true amateur radio operator should. It was more or less a curiosity and a hobby to me. I loved the technical aspects of it all, and to be honest I never would have got the job at Motorola if I were not a ham operator. They didn't want to hire me at first, but then I showed them the letter I got from a fellow ham who worked at Motorola where they made televisions. HR didn't know this guy but after reading the letter they changed their mind and offered me a job. LOL
Re: Duh!
I understand. If I was not a Ham, I probably would not have landed my job as a DJ at KSIM in Sikeston, MO. Far from home, and I had just completed several announcing courses. But everyone said it was because of my unique voice. I never thought it was unique, not even listening to myself on tapes. I often thought I over enunciated my words to make sure they were clear to the listener, but was told no I wasn't doing that, and every word was clear as a bell and the pacing just right.
Pacing was a big thing to get all the dialog into the time frame without running short or running over. Dead Air on the Radio was a Major No No, hi hi.
I actually got very little live air-time, almost everything was pre-recorded, and most of my work was recording commercials. I was on the air for two to four hours a day, but as I said, even though it was me talking, most of it was pre-recorded, although the listeners usually never knew this.
It wasn't like today either where you could have a hundred or so responses at your fingertips with the push of a button.
Everything was on 4-track cassette tapes, even long after 8-track tapes came out. 4-tracks were better because the drive wheel and capstan was a part of the machine, not the tape itself like in 8-tracks that could slip and drag.
We only had 16 tape drives for comments, and 4 for commercials. So being a DJ was simply pulling tapes in and out of slots, hi hi. The music was on a huge reel to reel like the data used to be kept, and it sat right behind me. There were also two turntables to my left for requests.
We were not like some radio stations who had a continuously running tape all day and no DJ on site for hours on end, hi hi.
Pacing was a big thing to get all the dialog into the time frame without running short or running over. Dead Air on the Radio was a Major No No, hi hi.
I actually got very little live air-time, almost everything was pre-recorded, and most of my work was recording commercials. I was on the air for two to four hours a day, but as I said, even though it was me talking, most of it was pre-recorded, although the listeners usually never knew this.
It wasn't like today either where you could have a hundred or so responses at your fingertips with the push of a button.
Everything was on 4-track cassette tapes, even long after 8-track tapes came out. 4-tracks were better because the drive wheel and capstan was a part of the machine, not the tape itself like in 8-tracks that could slip and drag.
We only had 16 tape drives for comments, and 4 for commercials. So being a DJ was simply pulling tapes in and out of slots, hi hi. The music was on a huge reel to reel like the data used to be kept, and it sat right behind me. There were also two turntables to my left for requests.
We were not like some radio stations who had a continuously running tape all day and no DJ on site for hours on end, hi hi.
Re: Duh!
I don't recall where this happened, but I think it might have been around St Joe's Michigan. In search of touristy things to do we found an ad to tour the local FM radio station. We listened to it in the hotel room for a while and thought it might be interesting to see how it was all put together. When we arrived at the address there was no reception area, but outside on the sidewalk there was a display window. Looking into the window we could see what must have been a transmitter console and a couple tape machines. That was it. That was the entire radio station and the tour. LOL
Somebody at some time had to come into that room to change the tapes. But for most or all the broadcast time there was not a living soul in sight. I was enlightened by all that because many of the radio stations in Chicago had identical formats. They obviously were all prerecorded and controlled remotely. Live DJ's were only an illusion.
Somebody at some time had to come into that room to change the tapes. But for most or all the broadcast time there was not a living soul in sight. I was enlightened by all that because many of the radio stations in Chicago had identical formats. They obviously were all prerecorded and controlled remotely. Live DJ's were only an illusion.
Re: Duh!
When KSIM was in the process of moving from one building to another. I had to go work as a DJ in the block building that housed the transmitter. Much of their live transmissions were done remotely, such as from a table set up on the college parking lot, or from a fold out window in the stations van. But there was always someone in the control room at the office where we did almost everything.
You could come visit and see the DJ, or me, working at the console through a window inside the lobby.
But about all you would see is the DJ plugging in 4 track tapes.
I remember when I was in grade school, a secretary who worked at the school is who gave me a ride to Chaminade when I was going there for 5th grade. She listened to the same radio station in her car, and that radio station was taped, and since she ran more accurate than a Swiss watch, we heard the same song every single day at the same time, and just as she got to the first intersection, the song Friendly Persuasion would come on. If the light was red when it came on, she always said she was running a little behind that day, if the light was green and she made it through the intersection as it came on, she would say right on schedule. Although I got tired of the same song every day, I got a kick out of her going 2 mph faster afterward if she hit the light red. To her, this was REALLY SPEEDING along at breakneck speed, hi hi.
You could come visit and see the DJ, or me, working at the console through a window inside the lobby.
But about all you would see is the DJ plugging in 4 track tapes.
I remember when I was in grade school, a secretary who worked at the school is who gave me a ride to Chaminade when I was going there for 5th grade. She listened to the same radio station in her car, and that radio station was taped, and since she ran more accurate than a Swiss watch, we heard the same song every single day at the same time, and just as she got to the first intersection, the song Friendly Persuasion would come on. If the light was red when it came on, she always said she was running a little behind that day, if the light was green and she made it through the intersection as it came on, she would say right on schedule. Although I got tired of the same song every day, I got a kick out of her going 2 mph faster afterward if she hit the light red. To her, this was REALLY SPEEDING along at breakneck speed, hi hi.