Wowee. “Short, Loaded Antennas” is part of the title to a feature article in the latest QEX magazine from ARRL. Barry Boothe, W9UCW has published a pragmatic journey of antenna research. I was fascinated and I can’t wait for Part 2. Here’s one excerpt that should whet your appetite:
“The big deal of the day was the comparison of signal strengths between two otherwise similar antennas for 1.8 MHz. One used a big high-Q coild with a 1:1 length/diameter ratio, 6 inches in diameter, with spaced turns of #10 wire and an air core. The other used my skinny 7/8 inch diameter close wound coil with #20 wire on a piece of PVC pipe and a 20 to 1 length/diameter ratio. And worse yet, my coil was covered with shrink tubing!
As was expected, the higher Q antenna was better, but by only 0.3 dB. That’s right, three tenths of a decibel! That was not expected!” The journey begins….. You’ll have to get a copy of QEX to read all 9 pages of the article.
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