K4UPG has CAD Affliction

Adventures in Ham Radio QRP Portable Ops!

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I am CAD afflicted

October 25th, 2010 by kmack

Yep, it is confirmed now for sure. Compulsive Antenna Disorder has haunted me since I was first licensed and ran a coax fed 80 meter dipole on multiple bands without a tuner. The first time the symptoms were noticed by my family and friends was when I got a couple OO tickets for out of band harmonics. Hmmmm… what’s up with that? So a bit of reading and the antenna tweaking began and that’s when it all started.

Soon thereafter I tried to load up a nifty pin from my Junior Prom Boutonnière that reminded me of a triple stacked halo for 1296 Mc (MHz for the newer ones amongst us). Then it was the handheld yagis for 432 Mc that we used with some military surplus gear that used dynamos so we could chase tornadoes. (We thought if it bounced off the moon, it should bounce off of a tornado!) The saucer sled that became a parabolic for listening to satellite telemetry and on it goes… Compulsive Antenna Disorder has had a firm grip on me for some time now.

Am I dreaming? Thanks wiki images!

As a QRP operator, I am always looking for more antenna power. I know that somewhere out there simply MUST be a silver bullet, that magic QRM and pileup busting antenna that makes my 2 watts output sound like a full gallon.

I can say one thing for sure, I know a lot of non-silver bullet antennas, as I have a box full of them.

But they still make a few QSO’s at times and I’m having fun along with a bit of frustration and disappointment as I deal with my CAD affliction.

I’m told that much like telegraph key collectivitis there is no known cure or relief. I share in your grief brothers and sisters…

72,

Kelly K4UPG PB #173

4 Responses

Alex writes:
October 25th, 201011:17 amat

CAD is a great term for us Qrp’ers, as most, if not all, are afflicted by this “Disorder”. Did I use too many comma’s in that sentence? Seemed reasonable when I inserted them!
Kelly, I know you have a box full of Non-silver Bullet antennae along with non-silver bullet tuners; early this week by Priority Mail, you should be receiving another Non-Silver Bullet antennae from me, make it work brother!
Yep, I put my old 40M 1/4 wave vertical back up yesterday after cleaning all joints of oxidation, hooked up all 16 buried radials that were in place for the last 10 years, and it was resonant on 6750Mhz !! What happened to 7100Mhz where it used to be resonant? Another Siver bullet! Replace the oxidation??? Git-r-done.
Maybe I should get my G7FEK antenna back up and run with it as it seemed to work better than most others I have tried. Altho’ for field work I am leaning more to the 42ft and 82ft random wires with 4:1 UnUn and Elecraft T1 tuner to the 817, simple wires, no loading coils(traps)no radials to mess with, just KISS in action.
TNX for keeping this site updated, I luv it.
73 Alex K5uny PB 105
Kyle N4NSS writes:
October 25th, 20103:28 pmat

Compulsive Antenna Disorder has haunted me too since I got into Ham Radio. My version is that I constantly, even subconciously look for antennas. While watching House Hunters I scan for antennas….sick…
kmack writes:
October 25th, 20105:04 pmat

Yes, we are sick ones…

Hey! Maybe we can start a CAD fund and collect bazillions of dollars to seek a cure! (Silver Bullet here we come!)

72,
Kelly K4UPG PB #173
kmack writes:
October 25th, 20105:42 pmat

Alex man…

Oey. You got it bad bro! CAD sufferers unite!

I did get that box… I can tell it is not working because you used grey wire and the instructions clearly call for black wire. No wonder dude! Not to worry, I have several hundred feet of black wire stashed away for use during a crisis like this one.
72,
Kelly K4UPG PB #173