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"STEALTH SLINKY DIPOLE" Anyone tried this?

FatHam

FatHam

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Apr 15, 2011
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So Cal

Hmmmmm . . .
I'm sure you can use any two equal lengths of wire and suspend them across X amount of distance, and it will work on some bands. So long as an antenna tuner is used. Having said that, some guys have used metal garbage cans with an antenna tuner and have talked half way across the globe too. Is it efficient - should be the REAL question here. Since it is hellical, it will act as an induction coil - depending how far it was stretched.

The first one might be worth taking a chance on. But the second one - I wouldn't. It says it has a choke coil on it. But choke coils have to be wrapped with so many coils on a 4 in or larger coil form to work. It takes a lot of windings to make an RF choke for even 80m; and the coil that is shown wouldn't make it past 10m - as far as I can tell. If that.

Personally, I would just use some speaker wire cut to length for 40m - approx ~33 ft in length for each side. Some 300 ohm feedline and a manual tuner for a low cost setup.

I think these antennas are more 'snake oil' than function. But perhaps there are some on this forum has bought and used them that can give their experience with these 'antennas'. We will see . . .
 
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Thanks for the reply Robb.

This is one of the things I have to get solved in my mind before I get serious about going for my General. Every time I crack the book, the little devil on my shoulder keeps saying "there's nowhere for an antenna..." which I find quite distracting.

I'm on a corner lot too, which makes it all but impossible to "hide" something behind the house.
 
The 'slinky' antenna has been around for a long time now. The 'stealth' part I would have to see to believe!
So how would it work? Think about it, it's a helically wound coil that can't hold it's shape, meaning any wind will cause it to expand/contract, meaning it isn't going to stay 'tuned' on any one particular frequency, or band for that matter. Good luck with that. And, since it's -all- coil, it's about as inefficient as it can get and that's in the best of circumstances. But it will 'work', so if you are really desperate, with no viable alternatives, it -might- be worth having as opposed to no antenna at all. Maybe. A 'slinky' antenna is commonly thought of as a joke, really.
I think you'd have much better luck with those loaded trash cans...
- 'Doc
 
You're right. I showed it to someone earlier today and they had the same reaction. Since the coils aren't of a "fixed" length, the inductance would be all over the place with movement.
 
Actually, the exposure wouldn't amount to much at all. Rough guess of what, maybe 10 - 15 feet separation? At the 'bare-foot' power of the radios cited, that wouldn't even qualify as exposure at HF.
Those slinkies in an attic wouldn't move much, if any. that means that they would be stable anyway. They can certainly be made to work, but I wouldn't expect them to work much, maybe on the higher HF bands, but certainly not anything like a 'decent' antenna. Just be sure to have a really good tuner!
- 'Doc
 
When I was first married we lived in an upstairs apartment for the first two years. We had access to the large attic as well and I installed a three element wire beam for 10m, a dipole for 20m, and a slinky longwire type antenna the full length of the attic. The slinky worked "OK" in the attic but no way I would ever install one outdoors. The match changes as it sways in he wind and an equal length of straight wire would work as well IMHO. If you have any ice or snow where you live then don't even consider an outdoors slinky type antenna.
 

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