In years past, one of my favorite performers has been the venerable 134′ doublet. While the dipole is easy to construct, some issues and compromises emerge concerning various lengths of the 450Ω window line. I have spent some time and considerable “conventional” research on the matter to determine what would be optimal for me. On a lark, I decided to see what ChatGPT might suggest after seeeing what Google’s AI engine was tossing back at me. For the most part, I do not use AI much more than it is embedded in the functionality of software now–and most of that…
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Alright Sherman, it’s time to join Mr. Peabody and “Set the Wayback Machine” for 1970. We have arrived in an average-sized Midwestern town where we will visit two electronics operations—one a television repair shop and the other a ham radio shack. Observe closely, for we are looking for something very useful that can be brought forward to today’s electronics workbench. Remember that these are still the waning days of the vacuum tube Solid-state is becoming more common in home entertainment applications–but for the ham, repair technician, and experimenter, much of the equipment is still firmly based on “hollow state” devices.…