today testing out some old cb antennas. try as i might I couldn't get them to match
after about three hours I finally got up and got a couple beers, While downing the second one it hit me
Remembering my radio classes 40 years ago I remembered the teacher saying" Any transmitting antenna requires a ground
plane equal or slightly larger than the transmitting element to match impedance:
finished my beer and as an experiment used an old 35 inch car radio antenna with a nylon disk as insulator. Then made (5) 7 inch radial elements wired together and bent downward at a 45 degree angle,
mounted it on a fence post away from the house and connected the coax.
Lo and Behold swr tested the junktenna and you guessed it (1.2: to 1 swr) damn near a perfect match
must be the beer jogged my brain cells awake.
I sure am not going to forget that.
kind of makes me want to try ham radios
love it