No Coax cables.. ? !... (lafffing) OMG !... utter chaos!
.
Believe me, I am being anything but serious,--- though I really don't want to harken back to the Gold Age of Radio in the 1930's.
.
I have been, like forever, a great fan of the random length long wires and an antenna tuner.... I've carried them with me around the world; - and never had a disappointment. I can really appreciate, Martin (Majoco,) what you mean when you laud the old open wire feeds of the maritime services....
.
.
Staying on the topic of feedlines- I have a story about one feedline that I doubt anyone here has used, much less heard about.
.
_____________________________________________________
.
Coyote's Story Time....
.
On a certain project in the Far Far North, somewhere along the US/ Canadian border, we had a temporary test camp set at the foot of some incredibly steep little mountains. This was in the winter, and those familiar with the poems of Robert Service, and the lines ".... with the Northern Lights a running wild..." will identify with what the Aurora's were like..... and these Northern Lights were playing havoc with our radio links to the other side of those mountains.
.
Some one in our team proposed we try using microwave. It was also proposed we use a passive repeater (a reflector) on the summit of those mountains, (big hills. actually) which tower'd over our camp/base. From up there it was a clear shot, though miles off- to the other end of the circuit.
.
Okay.... who'd climb the 'mountain' side in the sub-zero Yukon winter? Fortunately for us, we had some tough characters who step'd forward. But when they learn'd they would have to haul a "bill board' reflector up the 'mountain,' thru ice and snow------- there was, for lack of a better term-- desertion.
.
I still thought that a microwave link would be our salvation- and I recalled something I had used years before as a student.... the "G-Line."
.
Okay guys, get your minds out of the gutters-- it is anything BUT !......
.
A G-line is a feed line also called a Goubau line- It is a form of a microwave waveguide-- and a very simple one-- It uses a single wire and two conical 'launchers' -- The losses at the microwaves are the lowest of anything I have ever seen.... practically Zero.
..... Interested ?... look it up..
.
.
Stringing a wire several hundred feet long up a hill to a corner reflector is a lot easier than lugging a 'bill board' reflector that same distance. Our system used a single run of some # 6 or #10, (I forget) , copper wire, with "launchers" made of sheet aluminium.
.
The G-Line, when strung, was attach'd to an ~20 db corner reflector.... and.... Bingo!- communications !
.
I don't have any sites to reference this unique feedline system- but I am sure its out there for anyone interested
.
This is maybe a deviation from the original topic, but an interesting aside (and for some, possibly an antenna project.)
.
.
..............................CF
.