The Craziest Antenna That *Still* Never Was…
You may recall in this post, that AA1F and I were shut out of getting our SOTA point on Oak Hill W1/MV-006 near Concord NH due to a thunderstorm. This meant that I could not attempt to put that rusty twisted tangle of metal residing on the peak of the small hill on the air. I think it is something like a horse-drawn timber skidder that has seen better days. I had built a special coax device with an alligator clip attached to the center pin and another wired to the coax braided shield. I would use a metal tent stake as a mini (and therefore probably a “humor-me” type of ineffective ground rod), that I would clip the black clamp to. The red clamp would clip on the skidder. The PL259 connector would mate with the SO239 on the back of the MFJ 16010 random wire tuner. The other set was just RCA plugs attached to alligator clip leads; I would use these as a back up plan.
So, like many of my adventures and experiments, the first try failed. In this case due to inclement weather. Failure is rather inconsequential to me. A part of life. I consider not trying to be the real travesty.
With no propensity to give up easily, and a husband who will walk to the end of the Earth, well, just because he loves to walk, I suggested an impromptu re-hike up Oak Hill.
AA1F carried up his radio station, and I commandeered it. He activated instead from the fire tower with a 2M handitalkie and a ducky antenna.
I clipped an alligator lead to the skidder-thingy, the one attached to the center pin of the coax.
I stuck the tent stake in the ground and attached the coax shield to it.
The alligator clip contraption was plugged into the antenna port of the random wire tuner.
A run of coax went back to the picnic table and attached to the radio. I could not get the MFJ random wire antenna tuner to match the skidder “antenna”. The SWR on 20M was 8.3 at its lowest. I was able to use the LDG Z100 Plus autotuner at the radio side of the antenna system to complete the impedance match. Needless to say, my expectations for a success transmission were rather low by now…
(That is AA1F setting up his 20M EFHW after making his 2M activation, and realizing that my antenna was not going to work…)
I was able to receive some stations. I made exactly zero contacts. At least until I switched to the 20M commercial antenna (where I was able to complete my SOTA activation).
So, failure. Like I said, it doesn’t matter much to me. Real failure in my opinion is not even trying. Real failure is not caring enough. Not seeing the beauty in attempting to send radio waves through a random heap of junk. Pretending to be too cool for school. Not being excited. Not being silly. Not realizing the joy of living. The fun of laughing. Or the magic of a walk through the woods. Real failure is believing you are just too tired to take a single extra step up a steep hill. Reaching the end of your rope even though there is always more rope. Being cynical. Being jaded. Being afraid with no plan to overcome that fear. Real failure. The refusal to be gloriously alive.
Leaving all that aside though, an old rusted lumber skidder does not make a great antenna. But, oh boy, it was sure a hoot to figure that out!
KM1NDY