DID YOU EVER WORK W6AM?

[Steve - K4HX]

Wallace's approach may have made sense for his station in 1933. It does not today.

[ke7trp]

How so Steve?

C

[KA2DZT]

In theory, feeders that are perfectly balanced should not act like an antenna and pick up signals and probably noise also.  Transposing the lines helps to keep the feeders balanced, especially since Don had more than one set of feeders running on his poles.  He would have seen some improvement in noise pick up at his QTH by transposing the feeders.

There may be more to this practice.  I haven't read his book or anything else on this subject.

Maybe we'll get some more opinions.

Fred

[ke7trp]

Agreed.  Its a neat idea from what I believe was a man who knew what he was talking about. For someone that had the property it would be a neat design to try for his recieve antenna.

C

[Steve - K4HX]

He was using long runs of open-wire line with 1933 vintage receivers (poorly shielded) for starters. Also, little is known about what type of ground system(s) he actually tried and what sorts of measurements he actually did.

The reality of today is that all big gun stations use ground, all commercial and military comm sites use ground. Read the Navy docs on grounding, read the Bell System docs on grounding, read the RCA docs on grounding. They all say something drastically different than Wallace. Unless you want to believe he was right and the rest of the world was wrong, I'm not sure of your point.

Bear in mind Wallace used Rhombics long after stacked arrays were shown to be superior, so he was clearly not always correct. Was he a prominent amateur radio op and an accomplished man? For sure. He was not God though.

How so Steve?

C

[ke7trp]

His antennas show feeder length.  66 ft 6 inches. I dont call that a long run.  The book was before his Rhombics.  They did not exist at his station then.  The book also shows verticals and of course they are grounded. Running no grounds is suggested for SW RECEIVING using Transposed OWL.

C

[G3UUR]

I don't often agree with Steve, but on this occasion I tend to go along with what he says. Don was undoubtedly a great operator and back in the 1920s and '30s he was obviously up there with technical developments, otherwise he wouldn't have won the Hoover Cup back then when he was 9ZT.

Having said that, you've just got to look at Don's fuzzy logic about small improvements in his 1933 Short Wave Manual to see that his math wasn't quite what it should have been, even for the '30s.

Since he was a contester, though, there might have been a good technical reason for staying with rhombics as long as he did - you don't have to wait for the rotator to swing the beam round to peak the DX station. Switching rhombics is a lot quicker!

Dave.

[G3UUR]

Oh, I forgot to add a copy of 9ZT's QSL card to my last post. Some of you might get a kick out of seeing it.

[Steve - K4HX]

The part that appears to be left out in his approach is atmospheric noise. Even if you could make all those 2% improvements (doubtful in 1933, let alone today), you would still be limited by atmospheric noise over much of the HF bands.

Having said that, you've just got to look at Don's fuzzy logic about small improvements in his 1933 Short Wave Manual to see that his math wasn't quite what it should have been, even for the '30s

[KA2DZT]

Don multiplied his 2% improvements to come up with some 2000% improvement???

He should have added his 2% improvements.  X + N(.02X).  This is closer to the truth.  Possible one could say that you should add the first 2% to the total and then add the next 2% of the new total and so on.

 X + .02X + .02(X + .02X)....so on,  with X always becoming the new total.

I think this looks right.

Now that I think about it,  this is the same as compound interest.

It's too early for me, the side of my brain that I sleep on is just waking up.

Fred

[ke7trp]

I think its sometimes hard for some hams to stop thinking about transmitting antennas and focus on specialized recieving antennas.   

Yes. I agree that his example of 2% seems flawed. The point was the same as one made to me years ago.  A guy told me he would not walk across the room for a DB in which I replied, I would walk across the room 10 times.

Thanks for posting the old QLS card!

C

 

[G3UUR]

He's probably missed out other important things as well, Steve, but my point is that anyone who can get 2048% from a series of eleven 2% improvements should not be taken that seriously on technical matters.

He should have used 1.02 raised to the 11th power, of course, and that's approximately 1.2434 or nearly a whole dB in power terms. Doesn't sound as convincing an improvement as 2048% does it? There again, Don was a salesman, and judging by the wealth he accrued I think we can safely say he was quite a good one.

Dave.

[K4RT]

I worked Don in the early 80s and received his QSL card.  I either read or someone told me years ago that Don bought the land for his Rhombic farm from Howard Hughes. Don't know if that's true.

The Swan users web site includes a couple of photos of Don, said to be taken while he was visiting the Swan plant in Oceanside, California in the 60s:

http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/hamradio/gallery005.html

73,
Brad

[KB2WIG]

There was a piece in Q Street a few years ago. I think that he bought the property from Press Wireless.


klc

[Ralph W3GL]

Yes, the rhombic field was the old Press Wireless receiver site.
all 125 acres of it...

[ab3al]

might be a little off topic but now you can work one of his amps

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ALPHA-77SX-HF-LINEAR-AMPLIFIER-DON-WALLACE-W6AM-CUSTOM-BUILT-ETO-/270848705990?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3f0fd745c6

[KM1H]

Wallace's approach may have made sense for his station in 1933. It does not today.

A rhombic is just about the most inefficient use of antenna real estate there is.

I zoomed in on that site and cant believe people can live like that. The last time I was in CA for any length of time was the late 80's and the density even in lower priced areas wasnt anywhere that bad. Its time for that Big One to refresh the gene pool

Did I work W6AM?  I think so during some contests, probably SS. Maybe also in the 50's when I had no idea who he was.

Carl