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Friend of mine in Vegas, a long time ago, was trying to put up a dipole "just like in the ARRL Antenna Book". Didn't have too good of a grasp on physics. He'd tried three times to get that 40M dipole up between two nice tall pine trees in the Charleston Mountain area NW of the city, and they kept breaking. He called me, so I drove up and saw the problem. The Antenna Book's illustration was a drawing, rather than an actual photograph. He was using #10 stranded copperweld (!!!), with RG8/U - the good stuff - and putting the dipole up at the 55 foot level with heavy duty pulleys.

He couldn't get the dipole "flat"! If he pulled too hard, the trees would actually bend inward just before the wire snapped! Imagine that!

In my best high school student explanation of physics, I showed him why he couldn't do much better than "sorta flat". He connected the coax and was on the air with one of the better 40M dipoles I've ever seen, even though the center was about a foot lower than the ends.

<blockquote data-quote="Beetle" data-source="post: 221736" data-attributes="member: 1066">Friend of mine in Vegas, a long time ago, was trying to put up a dipole &quot;just like in the ARRL Antenna Book&quot;.&nbsp; Didn&#039;t have too good of a grasp on physics.&nbsp; He&#039;d tried three times to get that 40M dipole up between two nice tall pine trees in the Charleston Mountain area NW of the city, and they kept breaking.&nbsp; He called me, so I drove up and saw the problem.&nbsp; The Antenna Book&#039;s illustration was a drawing, rather than an actual photograph.&nbsp; He was using #10 stranded copperweld (!!!), with RG8/U - the good stuff - and putting the dipole up at the 55 foot level with heavy duty pulleys.&nbsp; He couldn&#039;t get the dipole &quot;flat&quot;!&nbsp; If he pulled too hard, the trees would actually bend inward just before the wire snapped!&nbsp; Imagine that!In my best high school student explanation of physics, I showed him why he couldn&#039;t do much better than &quot;sorta flat&quot;.&nbsp; He connected the coax and was on the air with one of the better 40M dipoles I&#039;ve ever seen, even though the center was about a foot lower than the ends.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Beetle, post: 221736, member: 1066"] Friend of mine in Vegas, a long time ago, was trying to put up a dipole "just like in the ARRL Antenna Book". Didn't have too good of a grasp on physics. He'd tried three times to get that 40M dipole up between two nice tall pine trees in the Charleston Mountain area NW of the city, and they kept breaking. He called me, so I drove up and saw the problem. The Antenna Book's illustration was a drawing, rather than an actual photograph. He was using #10 stranded copperweld (!!!), with RG8/U - the good stuff - and putting the dipole up at the 55 foot level with heavy duty pulleys. He couldn't get the dipole "flat"! If he pulled too hard, the trees would actually bend inward just before the wire snapped! Imagine that! In my best high school student explanation of physics, I showed him why he couldn't do much better than "sorta flat". He connected the coax and was on the air with one of the better 40M dipoles I've ever seen, even though the center was about a foot lower than the ends. [/QUOTE]

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