Wire Dipole Bargain

[WB2CAU]

They wouldn't be selling if nobody was buying.

Nobody is putting a gun to the head of the buyers.

[K1JJ]

"Yes, I'm the poor bastard who called CQ for three days in 1964 on a Gotham vertical, fed with 5' of coax next to my bedroom window, with no radials - without a single reply... "   [name withheld by request]  


T

[Lou W9LRS]

Makes me think there is a market  for my High Speed Oxygen Free CD Rewinder

[WD8BIL]

You forgot the 5' of coax, Vu!

[K1JJ]

You forgot the 5' of coax, Vu!

Yep, just checked with the guy.  He used  5' of RG/8U to keep the losses low. Good thing he didn't use lossy RG-59/U. Whew.

Thanks.

T

[Steve - K4HX]

Parts availability is not a problem. Most parts can be purchased at a local hardware or home supply store. If not, there are dozens of antenna parts suppliers on the Web.

I quickly picked out some parts (didn't even look for the lowest prices) at the Wireman. All the parts needed to build a multiband dipole for $97.25. This includes 500 feet of wire (more than is needed) and a 6 kW balun. With judicious selection of parts and/or buying at a fest, you could probably cut the price in half.

I understand some people just don't want to build a wire antenna. Parts availability however, is not a legitimate excuse.

[K6JEK]

Parts availability is not a problem. Most parts can be purchased at a local hardware or home supply store. If not, there are dozens of antenna parts suppliers on the Web.

I quickly picked out some parts (didn't even look for the lowest prices) at the Wireman. All the parts needed to build a multiband dipole for $97.25. This includes 500 feet of wire (more than is needed) and a 6 kW balun. With judicious selection of parts and/or buying at a fest, you could probably cut the price in half.

I understand some people just don't want to build a wire antenna. Parts availability however, is not a legitimate excuse.

I'm not sure the parts exist to make an OCF dipole work well.   I guess when I built one I forgot to add enough patience.  I did put in the 4:1 choke balun.  I burnished the wire with EZ NEC plots.  I  chanted the descriptions of the DL versions in German.  But I was low on patience and for sure didn't pour enough in.
 

[Steve - K4HX]

You are probably correct. That's why I listed parts for a fan dipole - same frequency coverage, better results.

[KF1Z]

One major problem with an OCF of this type...

They HAVE to be low to the ground in order to work ( vswr claims) the way they are supposed to.

An apex of 45 feet is about the top limit.

[KB2WIG]

Thems that buy said dipoldes are performing a public servise.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVzt2HSvUis&feature=fvw

[KF1Z]

Thems that buy said dipoldes are performing a public servise.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVzt2HSvUis&feature=fvw

Perfect. 

[WD5JKO]

I recall my first visit to Ozona Bob's QTH (W5PYT). He had, at the house, a home made tower (at least 50'), and a huge home made "plumbers delight" 5 element 10 meter beam. I suppose even today, a trip to the big box store, along with some shop equipment at home along with a welder could reproduce such a tower and antenna, and do so at far less cost than calling up Texas Towers and ordering a 120' 45G based tower for several kilo-bucks.

The irony here is the "idiot" who bought a 8 band OCF dipole with a 40' "push-up" mast probably spent far less on their ham antenna/tower than those who are mercilessly picking on Bugmaster, and anyone who might purchase a pre-made antenna.

Oh, I can just see the visual appeal of an 8 band multi-wire fan dipole with 16 insulators, ropes, pulleys, and tie off points. Then once up, adjusting the lengths to get the SWR minimum to occur at the right place on each band. Yep, that would be simple.  

Jim
WD5JKO

[Steve - K4HX]

For that that price you could BUY a low end tri-band beam and still have money for a 80/40 homebrew dipole. This setup would out perform any OCF.

The $500 OCF is just a poor value proposition, no matter how you look at it.

[WA1GFZ]

Yea but Steve you only need to drill one hole in the wall.

[Steve - K4HX]

True. But I doubt that the guy that buys this antenna will be drilling anything.

[K5UJ]

True. But I doubt that the guy that buys this antenna will be drilling anything.

I may have recounted this story before here; if so forgive me, but a few years ago I was in a QSO with some guy up in Minnesota and I did the usual QSO thing where you give a general description of your station, so I mentioned the feedline was ladder line and a balance tuner blah blah.  He asked how I got the ladder line into the shack, so I told him how I bashed out a basement window pane and put in a plexiglass pane with two holes drilled in it for banana jacks, soldered ladder line to them on the inside and pluged the feedline into the jacks outside so I could pull the line away from the house in a thunderstorm.   Regarding the part with the bashing out of the window pane and plexiglass, he said, "Oh, my wife would never let me do that."   I think one of the bigger unspoken hammy hambone restrictions isn't CCRs and HOAs; it's the XYL.  I think all of the hams I know who pretty much put up anything they want, made sure their YLs were ham friendly before they became XYLs. 

 

[Steve - K4HX]

Good story Rob. I always suggest to such XYL-laden hams that they take up stamp collecting.

[W2VW]

They wouldn't be selling if nobody was buying.

Nobody is putting a gun to the head of the buyers.

But if they DID while the buyers were on the air would anyone hear it?

[K1JJ]

Good story Rob. I always suggest to such XYL-laden hams that they take up stamp collecting.

I can think of a couple of hams who use reverse psychology and just show the XYL pictures of ham basements - or drive by the house of certain hams.  Vortex Joe's basement or KC1XX's eleven-tower / 110 Yagis QTH comes to mind. The XYL quickly realizes what a stable, hihi FB, level headed  XYM she has, and let's him do what he wants afterwards...  It's all relative  

T

[K5UJ]

A few years ago at Dayton someone had a SUV with around 100 antennas on it, a hole in the rear roof through which a mast protruded with VHF yagis on it, the back had been stripped out and the walls lined with s.s. amps, the dashboard had been replaced with a console that held around 30 rigs...it was totally insane and ever since I have wished I had brought a camera with me to get a few pixs because you had to see it to believe it.

[W9GT]

Whatever happened to Gotham?  Bare bones cheap antennas!  That might be a tremendous business opportunity.  Perhaps you could sell franchises for sale of the products and  develop a good relationship with some scrap yards to get cheap aluminum tubing.

On the other end of the spectrum...you could market accessories and supplies to the "high-end" crowd  Such things as antenna wax and rope stretchers might be popular items.  Custom crafted antennas made from oxygen free, super conductive insulated wire in decorator colors with matching/contrasting colored insulators would be great for those antenna restricted areas.

73, Jack, W9GT

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Whatever happened to Gotham?  Bare bones cheap antennas!  That might be a tremendous business opportunity.  Perhaps you could sell franchises for sale of the products and  develop a good relationship with some scrap yards to get cheap aluminum tubing.

On the other end of the spectrum...you could market accessories and supplies to the "high-end" crowd  Such things as antenna wax and rope stretchers might be popular items.  Custom crafted antennas made from oxygen free, super conductive insulated wire in decorator colors with matching/contrasting colored insulators would be great for those antenna restricted areas.

73, Jack, W9GT

You need to roll those "good of days" prices to 21st century pricing to develop a "cheap antenna" comparison. Marketing antennas and antenna accessories seems to be a great niche business. You should develop a business plan.

[W9GT]

Whatever happened to Gotham?  Bare bones cheap antennas!  That might be a tremendous business opportunity.  Perhaps you could sell franchises for sale of the products and  develop a good relationship with some scrap yards to get cheap aluminum tubing.

On the other end of the spectrum...you could market accessories and supplies to the "high-end" crowd  Such things as antenna wax and rope stretchers might be popular items.  Custom crafted antennas made from oxygen free, super conductive insulated wire in decorator colors with matching/contrasting colored insulators would be great for those antenna restricted areas.

73, Jack, W9GT

You need to roll those "good of days" prices to 21st century pricing to develop a "cheap antenna" comparison. Marketing antennas and antenna accessories seems to be a great niche business. You should develop a business plan.

Unfortunately, much of the basis for those prices probably is product liability protection costs...such things weren't required in the "good old days" when individual responsibility was considered when some dummy dropped his antenna across the power lines.  Now he (or his survivors) will sue the antenna manufacturer as well as the power company and will probably collect.

73,  Jack, W9GT

[W2DU]

The Wireman is doing an excellent job in this area of business. His prices are reasonable, and his service is great.

Walt

[K1JJ]

Whatever happened to Gotham?  Bare bones cheap antennas!  73, Jack, W9GT

I bought them out years ago, and destroyed all prints, tooling and materials for the welfare of all mankind. I didn't want another human to go through antenna hell like I did  

But seriously, after seeing the huge list of antenna makers that Pete posted above, there sure is competition.  MFJ is possibly the one who could capitalize on it.  Those $30 3 element Gotham Yagis sure seemed tempting back then.

I knew a ham who ordered their Gotham's quad. He said after opening the box he realized it would fall apart and instead used the poles for short antenna supports.

T