Tuning up strange antennas ...

Foundations of Amateur Radio

During the week I received a funny picture from a fellow amateur. This particular image was one titled "Multitap Antenna" and it featured a Four Wheel Drive vehicle with a bull-bar and a spring base mounted antenna. The antenna was made from pipe and at suitable intervals the pipe had a t-piece with a tap.

Nothing too peculiar, right? Well, other than that the taps were standard brass garden taps with a hose-quick release clip and hose fittings.

Made me laugh.

Anyway, that reminded me of a series of postings on Social Media about the random things people have used as antennas, from emergency bits of copper wire attached to flag-poles to get a local station back on the air during an emergency to tuning up wire fences, bed frames and the like.

There's even a "Strange Antenna Challenge" with suggestions of ladders, baby chairs - presumably without the baby, umbrellas in trees and other fun stuff. Suggestions to contact your local TV station to promote the activity to bring back some fun into Amateur Radio.

Now, why am I even talking about this?

As Amateurs we take ourselves very seriously, so seriously that any idea that isn't following the norm is scoffed at. "This is how we do things around here" and "That will never work" are often heard in group discussions among the knowing elite of Amateur Radio.

Here's the thing.

We're Amateurs, experimenters, licensed to test, to play, to learn.

What if you find yourself on the side of the road with an up-side-down vehicle with a perfectly working radio, but a broken off antenna? What would you do? What if a storm blew your antenna down, or it was destroyed by a flood? How would you cope? Would you bring out your trusty spare antenna and plug that in, or would it be helpful to have some experience with tuning up weird stuff and seeing what happens?

For my money, I'd rather know an Amateur who can make the proverbial wet piece of string work, than the one who has the latest gadgets and gizmo's ready for that day that the emergency arrives. Hopefully their spare antenna will be in their car and not sitting in the Garage waiting for the emergency to arrive at the right time and place.

So, if you did in fact have some fun and started playing, some of this is going to fail and some of it will work poorly and some of it won't work at all and you might damage your radio if you pump full power into a random piece of conductive material, but, you might also just come across some skills that you could use when it becomes essential, or when you're up a creek without a paddle.

So, when you've done everything and are looking for the next challenge, have a look at the Strange Antenna Challenge, there's been activity going back over a decade featuring two cars as antennas, rail road tracks, a bronze statue, exercise machines, a football stadium and a bridge.

The only requirements are that no wire and no metal pipe allowed.

Remember to take a photo of your contraption, so you can share your adventure.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB