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Thread ID: 92680 2008-08-18 06:15:00 What is this old radio antenna? Billy T (70) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
698357 2008-08-18 06:15:00 Does anybody recognise this radio antenna? (www.imagef1.net.nz) They were quite common on old houses from the 1920's/30's. The base is ceramic (with a serial number even!) and about 10-11cm high, and the elements are bronze and 22cm long. They can occasionally still be seen on old houses that have not yet fallen into developers' clutches. I don't know what they were called, but brush antenna comes to mind.

Extensive searching on Google has failed to bring up any information or an image, probably for want of the right search terms. They must have been reasonably efficient to supply adequate signal to the radios of those days and I plan to use this one as a signal source for my vintage radio workshop (garage) and I'm interested in the theory behind them.

Cheers

Billy 8-{) :help:
Billy T (70)
698358 2008-08-18 07:03:00 Just sent a email to a guy I know, who has a great deal of knowledge on older radios etc. Hopefully he can advise as to its real name.

Stay Tuned ;) (Pun Intended)
wainuitech (129)
698359 2008-08-18 07:08:00 From memory they were given many names, brush and broomstick were the most common. They mostly indicated that somebody was a bit gullible when faced with fanciful advertising. However, they were pretty useful for keeping birds off ornamental poles. R2x1 (4628)
698360 2008-08-18 07:55:00 Why not try a different forum? like www.antiqueradios.com or something? Agent_24 (57)
698361 2008-08-18 07:59:00 I reckon for shortwave radio. apsattv (7406)
698362 2008-08-18 08:05:00 As I recall they were a gimmick. :)

I think Lamphouse/SOS sold them for a short time before they realised a wirewove mattress was better. :D
B.M. (505)
698363 2008-08-18 08:06:00 Poor mans version of this:

www.nitehawk.com
zqwerty (97)
698364 2008-08-18 09:32:00 Why not try a different forum? like www.antiqueradios.com or something?
I have a few enquiries out on other forums I subscribe to in the vintage radio field, but I have much greater faith in PF1 people to come through with the goods. As an example, I have posted various queries on a UK forum, and done my share of helping others, but they are a very insular lot and if you are not one of the "names" they often don't bother to reply. PMs go unanswered as well.

If I post the same question here, I can guarantee that somebody will try to help. That said, the question was novel enough to attract two UK replies, one calling it a lightning dissipator and the other recollecting seeing something similar on a house many years back.

Cheers

Billy 8-{) PF1 is best by far :clap
Billy T (70)
698365 2008-08-18 09:48:00 That's an antennae? qazwsxokmijn (102)
698366 2008-08-18 10:04:00 Seriously, I used to see these on top of some houses around Chch and always assumed they were the top end of a lightning rod. zqwerty (97)
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