Cuban v2a vs the Slinky Antenna

Quick demonstration of a cheap and dirty Slinky (tm) shortwave antenna constructed for about four dollars, using the Cuban numbers station v2a ('Atencion')

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station#The_Atenci.C3.B3n_spy_case_evidence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• atencion
• v2a
• shortwave
• slinky

[BlueStateChronicle]

I like to picture her as a hot little Latina, sitting in her office reading code. Your post just ruined my imagination.

[hyvahyva]

Ahh, my good friend V2a. I actually knew Elsa Alvarez, the wife of a Cuban government intelligence* agent who used the V2a or M8a (not sure which) transmissions to receive orders from the Cuban government. Interesting stuff... when I randomly brought up the subject of numbers stations in conversation, I did find it odd that she agreed immediately that the broadcast quality is crap. (ac hum, distortion...)

* Ultimate oxymoron. I do not like their government much, no offense to the culture itself

[peterann1]

What you are experiencing is the 'wet noodle' hand capacitance effect. It does not take advantage of the helical wound steel inductive steel coil.

[peterann1]

Go to a good toy store and search for the original JAMES Slinkys made in USA. For proper deployment what you will need is not only good mechanical/electrical connections but also a nylon internal cord (like a dipole) to properly support the weight of the steel helical coils....they sag.

[peterann1]

Capacitive adjustment

[peterann1]

JAMES (original Slinkys) offer a very complex mix of inductance and capacitance requireing a good tuner for transmitting. At my Dayton campsite I had the HyGain metal tape dipole as issued to MACV/SOG for use with Collins KWM-2 in VietNam set for fourty meters...nice VSWR set to proper legnth without tuner.

[kc8fwd]

I used to talk on a freq of 3933 khz with the members of the black sheep lounge and we used to hear her on 3927 khz she tore the band up the hams call her Savanna Hannah Have not heard her in a while as a lot of the hams jammed here but I remeber for 2 years she was on there same time and days every week 73 de Mike KC8FWD

[peterann1]

True. Do a search on Google for slinky dipoles. I'm going to DAYTON cxamping at KOA. Peter, WB2SGT

[noway2d]

I've found this one reaches Australia pretty strongly, on 5898KHz, definitely v2a. Now I need to find a metal slinky lol.

[KC8YOQ]

She is also on 7889 at 2pm eastern Mon-Sat

I made a slinky dipole and It works great.