3 ms·
Years ago, I tried the same thing on ham radio - made an antenna from a piece of wet string and tried to call cq. It worked a charm, though I had to continousl
by lb1lf 9y ago
Years ago, I tried the same thing on ham radio - made an antenna from a piece of wet string and tried to call cq.
It worked a charm, though I had to continously wetten the string as I applied RF power to it.
(21MHz ground plane antenna; eased the top end of the string through a hole pierced in an empty beer can, suspended it from a tree and filled the can with salt water.
Losses were huge, so antenna was easy to tune. Not the best of radiators, though, but I did work twelve or thirteen countries with it.
Cost of string and beer - $4.
"Antenna this end is the proverbial piece of wet string - literally. Back to you." -Priceless.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoJust got my HAM license and callsign. Gonna try this out.
- lb1lf 9y agoJust make sure not to use too much power - ten watts is plenty to start with. Oh, and congratulations. You're in for a treat. (Though I would suggest not using wet string as your only antenna. :-)) 73 de LB1LF /OddE
- vvanders 9y agoI've used some pretty dicey end-fed half waves but that takes the cake! Probably harder now that we're in a solar minimum but you'd have decent luck on CW.
- SagelyGuru 9y agoA garden hose filled with salt water is superior technology. It does not dry out and has a good size diameter. Better bandwidth performance than a thin wire.