Thanks Doug
So it would work well as an antenna for marine SSB?
If so I'm a bit surprised more people don't use this instead of trying to
achieve that elusive ground plane in the hull. Sounds like you could just
run the feed wire inside the mast if you don't need standoffs and the whole
installation would be pretty slick.

"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote in message
...
That's a slightly different animal. It is acts essentually like a dipole
which is a balanced antenna. Balanced antennas do not need a
ground plane. Standoffs are not needed because the mast is part of
the ground side of the antenna which is what the shield on the coax
is. I experimentd with a real dipole by stretching it between the masthead
and the radar arch. It was fed in the middle with a balun. Worked well,
but
keeping the feedline out of harms way proved to be a problem.

If the antenna in question was fed with coax, a balun would be
desirable.

Doug, k3qt
s/v Callista

"Gordon Wedman" wrote in message
news:6wAEd.61994$nN6.13173@edtnps84...
Over the holidays I killed some time looking through a few back issues of
Cruising World. In the April 1986 issue a boat-based ham operator said
he used a top-fed backstay antenna with excellent results AND he had no
in-hull ground plane. He said he connected the shield from his feed wire
to the mast-side of the backstay and this allowed the mast and all the
standing rigging to act as a ground plane. He didn't say anything about
using stand-offs between the feed wire and the mast. I would think you
would get a lot of signal loss over that much length if you didn't use
stand-offs?
If a person could put up with the appearance and make sure the whole
set-up didn't get torn down by sails/running rigging, would this really
give good performance? I don't recall reading about this type of set-up
so I guess its not too common on recreational boats but maybe it could be
worth considering in some situations?