This site has entertained several mentions of the Slinky Toy, a copyright of Poof Slinky, Inc., Plymouth, Michigan. The metallic Slinky has been put forward as a potential helical antenna, as a clever way to dodge a high expense.
Today I entered a dollar type store, where everything costs $5, but their slinky was plastic. Yet the young woman who helped me find it went way out of her way to serve me, while her boss was screaming for help at the register.
Second stop was K-Mart where I encountered a shopping couple in the toy aisle and asked if they’d seen a Slinky, and they allowed that they hadn’t seen one in years. The second person I came to I asked to please report to me if she saw a Slinky and she said, “I know where they are!” That’s why now I own a metallic slinky, and look forward to tinkering with it antenna wise.
If life makes sense in any way at all, it is with regard to Part 15 activity.
Slick Slinky
The neat thing about these is that they can save you a lot of time winding wire around a form to create a helical antenna or coil. I have used a slinky for inductor coils and if set up right, can be a reliable variable inductor.
RFB
Speaking of Coil Forms…
In this months QST magazine is an article about a homebrew vertical for 160/80 meters. It could easily be adapted to the upper BCB.
It’s made of plastic downspout pipe complete with top hat and corona discharge ball.
The vertical pipe has copper wire zig-zag laced from bottom to top to form the radiator.
For the base loading coil, a ribbed plastic accordian type connector pipe is used for the coil form. As the ribs are concentric, offset slots in the ribs allow winding the coil from one ring to the next.
Different, inventive, interesting…
Always Ready Fror New Antenna
Thank you MRAM for the good word about the QST Mag antenna. Will find it, maybe at the library.