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Happy 51st Birthday today, Telstar!



From Wikipedia: "Telstar 1 was launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, fax images and provided the first live transatlantic television feed."

TELSTAR 1, one of the first telecommunications satellites.

From Wikipedia: "Belonging to AT&T, the original Telstar was part of a multi-national agreement between AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National PTT (Post, Telegraph & Telecom Office) to develop experimental satellite communications over the Atlantic Ocean. "

TELSTAR 18, one of the newest 21st Century telecommunications satellites.

From Wikipedia: "Telstar 18 was launched in June 2004 by Sea Launch. The upper stage of the rocket underperformed, but the satellite used its significant stationkeeping fuel margin to achieve its operational geostationary orbit. It has enough on-board fuel remaining to allow it to exceed its specified 13-year design life."

TELSTAR, the ONLY instrumental single to EVER chart at #1 on BOTH the U.S. and the U.K. weekly charts.

From Wikipedia: " "Telstar" is a 1962 instrumental record performed by The Tornados. It was the first single by a British band to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and was also a number one hit in the UK; this makes it the only instrumental single to hit #1 on both the US and UK weekly charts. The record was named after the AT&T communications satellite Telstar, which went into orbit in July 1962. The instrumental was released five weeks later on 17 August 1962. "

In 2008, The Ventures reunited and performed their 1963 cover of "Telstar". This live performance featured only electric guitars and drums, whereas the original 1962 recording by The Tornados also included an instrument called "clavioline", an electronic keyboard instrument which was a forerunner to the analog synthesizer.

The Tornados (1962 original) - Telstar
http://youtu.be/YuA-fqKCiAE

THE Ventures (1963 cover) - Telstar
http://youtu.be/D6DmtPQv7V8

Sintetizador (A cover of a sixties instrumental by the Tornados with video taken from NASA propaganda films of the same era) - Telstar
http://youtu.be/DNblDy86phU

THE Ventures (2008 cover) - Telstar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKyCsmlYwB4

I don't doubt your friend's findings, but you have to keep in mind that they are subjective, not objective in nature.  A bazooka antenna does have a wider 'apparent' usable band width, but only at the lessening of efficiency the further you get away from it's 'design'(resonant) frequency.  As the frequency range increases from it's design frequency the efficiency of the antenna lowers because of reactance present in the antenna because of it's method of being 'fed'.  Reactance doesn't radiate anything, it contributes to a 'dead' loss in radiation.  The means of measuring SWR, a typical SWR meter can't distinguish between 'R' and 'X' (which combined equals impedance).  The SWR meter 'sees' a combination of 'R' and 'X' that it 'thinks' equals 50 ohms impedance, but doesn't mean 'R=50' and 'X=0' at all.
Why does it seem like an improvement over his wire dipole?  Because of how he's measuring things, using an SWR meter.  Those things are just not very 'accurate' in measuring radiation efficiency, just impedance matching.
 - 'Doc

That would be hard to do here because of the house being in the way.  I am going to try it and see what happens.

C

Yah, I guess it looks like a toilet float...it's really a flag pole thingy from the flag pole store!

Cheers,
Henry

I am thinking of trying a few different options for 40 and 80. 

I was thinking of trying out the 80 meter Double bazooka.  Mainly because it will cover a wide bandwidth. This antenna will be mounted from a fiberglass arm off the top of the 55 ft crank up tower and set up as an inverted V.

For 40,  I was thinking of making a standard dipole or another bazooka but then hanging this antenna off a side arm from the middle section of the crank up tower. 

Two dipoles, on the same tower.  One at the top and one at the top of the middle section. 

The distance apart would be 6ft when tower is cranked down for summer and 15 to 20 ft apart when the tower is up all the way. 

I have never ran two dipoles this close.  Will this work out ok since the two are on different bands.

Is there any real reason, I cant put both separate antennas on the top of the tower?   The 40 wires would run out and be tied off away from the 80 wires.  Kind of like a fan dipole but with two Bazookas and two coax lines.

Thanks for any thoughts on the subject!

C