Saturday, 5 December 2009
Reinventing the wheel
Sometimes reinventing the wheel is the right thing to do, take the radial tire for instance, but most of the time it is done through ignorance and an inability to research why things were done the way they are in the first place. Every now and again I read or hear something on the air that makes me cringe or simply shake my head in disbelief. Recent cases in point are experiments with horizontal FM, a two metres AM experiment, trying to generate a revival in Packet Radio and various people building antennas that are well know to be useless or near impossible to get working. I also heard of someone spending a massive amount of money on equipment and antennas to do something that I know defies the laws of probability if not those of physics. What is it that make some people deny what has gone before and have to fail for themselves before they will believe? With the Internet generating almost as much misinformation as information will future generations have to reinvent every time they want to achieve something? Are the odd cases of amateurs trying to reinvent the wheel simply a reflection of evolution in action as humanity responds to a misinformation overload?
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Hello Steve, there is nothing wrong with inventing the wheel. It's a learning process people have to go through. Just experimenting for themselves. I like to experiment myself too. I work with only a Miracle Whip antenna indoors + a 10 meter clipped on which goes outside. Many hams told me that this wont work on HF. But I worked 69 DXCC countries in 4 continents. 40 meter DX to the Caribbean and Thailand (USB and PSK31) with only 5 watts and without sunspots. I can work on 80 meter and 160 meter as well, though difficult. I like to defy physical laws, using compromise antenna. My receiving reports are -12 db against someone with 100 watts and big antenna. Have a nice day, 73 Paul
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, I am always delighted to hear of success against the odds, but I am surprised by what you say you have done with the Miracle Whip. I have sat on a mountain tops with my 5 watts and although I was getting 5/9s using a dipole no one could hear me on the Miracle Whip. I tried for 6 months on all sorts of bands without a single contact. I could not even make a six metre contact with a mate at the other end of the street (we did it on the 817's rubber duck okay). In every case I could hear them but they could not hear me. I came very close to jumping up and down on it, but in the end I put it back it the box and threw it in to a corner.
ReplyDeleteHello Steve, yes, I did hear a lot of this kind of story's about the Miracle whip. Even indoors I could make SSB contact with Italy this summer on 6 meters. N2UGB told me that I am on a hotspot. ;-) Even with a short wire only I can work on 40-80-30 and 20 meter. And work DX. I think I am just lucky. In January I put up a HF vertical (7 meters long) so I am curious what that antenna will do. 73 Paul
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