Limited funds and unlimited possibilities
Advice, given to one’s children, isn’t always followed. Imagine my surprise when son #1, returned my unsolicited text, within the hours; he had gone to the suggested store, bought his new set of pots and pans, along with a microwave AND made it to work on time. Now that’s focused! Along the way, I learned why the beloved blowout sales we had attended, year after year, in a hockey rink were no more. The company sold their retail wing to “Canny Tire”. Where tires are just an afterthought.
Days and nights have passed, and I’m still caught in a mental rut. In parallel with that old saw: “When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”, I have a new radio. A very polyvalent radio, deserving of an antenna system to match.
Now, I remember my earliest efforts at building skywires, in particular a trap dipole (without functional traps) that ended up in the attic space of my residence building. Hey, that pull down staircase was put there for a reason, right? I left that wire nightmare far behind when I upgraded living space and gear.
I also remember hanging a fan dipole off the edge of a barn, on a tiny island. Probably still there… but now I want something more modern and transportable. Yes, I know, antennas have been around since the dawn of the electronic age. And there’s a whole rubric of knowledge to go along, of which I hold mastery over a very limited section. So, I’ve been studying. Comparing. Wishing my funds were unlimited. Still comparing.
I’ve narrowed the list down, a little. Will it be a magnetic loop, an end fed dipole, a screwdriver antenna, a “buddipole”? Unsure, but the learning curve will keep me off the streets for the next while.
