Thanks for posting your article; it really brings back some pleasant
memories.
     When I was in my early teens I was using a homebrew rig built by my
Dad, W9EUK. It was a two-stage  transmitter, crystal-controlled, using a 6L6
in the final and about 15 watts input or so.
    One summer afternoon I was working a guy in Kansas on 40-meter CW and he
was using a very short antenna and had a pretty respectable signal in
Illinois. Our antenna was  an end-fed longwire about 130 feet or so, maybe
20 feet up
     He was kind of bragging about what he could do with 20 feet of wire,
and I wondered what I could get by with. So I disconnected the single-wire
lead-in from the Fahnestock clip on the flat ribbon that ran under the
window, which left me with about four feet of wire for an antenna. I had to
retune, of course, but my signal only dropped a couple of S-units, from S8
to S6. I was not terribly surprised, since my Dad had done something similar
on 40-meter fone at about 9 watts talking to a guy in New York one morning.
Still, I thought that was pretty amazing.
    The rig had a built-in pi network tuner which would load up the
proverbial bed springs.
    Anyway, I hadn't thought of that in years and it was fun to remember, so
thanks for the trigger.
     73.
-- Mike, K9AZS

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 7:12 PM
Subject: Working Ground


> Here is an article I wrote a long time ago that I haven't posted to this
> list for some time.  thought some might find it amusing.
>
> snip snip
>
> GROUND WAVE?
>
>
>
>                                By
>
>                           Phil Scovell
>
>                               K0NX
>
>
>
>      After pulling down the tower and antennas, I moved to a new
> location with a big yard.  Since it would be awhile before
> everything could be reinstalled, I decided to hang a wire so I
> could at least make a few contacts.  I tied one end of my long
> wire to the corner of the house, ran it forty feet across the yard
> to a pole about fifteen feet above ground, and then tied the other
> end off on the fence post at the back of the yard.  I had a good
> 120 feet of wire stretched out.  Digging around in my junk box, I
> unrolled a few feet of 300 ohm TV ribbon and attached it to my
> long wire.  Slipping the ribbon under the window screen, I screwed
> the ends on to my tuner and fired up the transceiver.  It worked!
> I began making contacts that night on 40 CW with fair signal
> reports.  That would hold me until the tower could be installed.
>
>      Stepping into the shack one evening, and flipping on the
> radio, I called CQ a couple of times with no response.  As I
> began tuning the 40 meter CW band, I heard a signal, none to
> strong, calling CQ.  Following his transmission, I called.  He
> called QRZ.  I called again.  He called QRZ.  I punched my call
> out a few more times and he repeated his QRZ with half my call
> sign and several question marks.  I retransmitted my call a few
> more times and he finally returned my call but said the copy was
> poor; giving a 449 report.  The QSO proved to be a short one and I
> was puzzled.  "He must have a lousy antenna," I concluded "or
> can't copy code."  Just to make sure, I stepped out the back door
> and in the darkness of the night felt for the 300 ohm ribbon
> hanging out my window.  There it was!  I trailed the thin
> transmission line out into the blackness of the yard until
> suddenly it slipped right through my fingers.  You guessed it!
> The dumb thing had fallen off the long wire.  I had just worked
> California from Colorado with 30 feet of 300 ohm ribbon laying
> flat on the ground.  Not bad!  Maybe that's what it means to work
> somebody ground wave?
>
>  Aiming For The Stars
>  http://www.redwhiteandblue.org