What happens when I lose a tine or two?

[jjudson]

I have the Radio Shack 20-043 Discone antenna. As everyone knows, it's prone to losing tines from time to time (elements? I'm a newbie at antennas, so excuse me). After losing four of them, I replaced three that I could find. I must have lost the fourth. My question is this:

What happens to the function of the antenna when I lose a tine (element, or whatever)?

 

[zz0468]

At some point, it will cease acting like a discone, and start behaving more like a random chunk of metal.

 

[mtindor]

At some point, it will cease acting like a discone, and start behaving more like a random chunk of metal.

IMO, a discone can't act much worse than a discone

 

[zz0468]

IMO, a discone can't act much worse than a discone

I quite like 'em, myself.

 

[Thayne]

I quite like 'em, myself.

Me too; they are so fricken wide band, even tho not much gain. The design must be ok because the military uses lots of them----

IMHO you cant beat em for general monitoring in good signal areas. I even use mine for DTV thru a stridsberg powered multicoupler.

 

[lmrtek]

IMO, a discone can't act much worse than a discone

I agree completely!
And the ONLY reason the military uses them is that they are on so many bands it would take 10 GOOD antennas to cover the same bandwidth and this would make the communications shack VERY easy to spot from the air.


However on a more serious note, it will only lose some bandwidth