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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
698367 2008-08-18 10:08:00 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

Thank you BM, following your tip I dived into my Lamphouse Annual archives and found that the aerial (or at least their version, which looks a little different to mine) was called the "Mastless" and was sold by them for many years. Starting way back in the 1930's (or earlier) and they were still selling them into the 1950's so they were no passing fad. I'm not sure that SOS Radio would have sold them, they didn't start up in business until the mid-to late 1950's I think, but I could be wrong there, I was but a slip of a lad back then.

With modern broadcasting power and plenty of local stations there's no need for a bigger aerial so it will do fine for my workshop and look good as well. I'm building a low power dual-channel broadcast transmitter (valve naturally) to give me stereo reception, using two radios of course, and the audio will be from my MP3 player. I like old radios, but can't stand the AM station programming and ads.

Now, where can I find a couple of blank spots in the AM band? :confused: :waughh:

Cheers

Billy 8-{) :thumbs:


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. Nope, definitely an aerial, houses never needed lightning rods here and if they did have one it would have to be mounted well above the roof. Possible in Chch I suppose, being so flat, but I would have thought most lightning would have hit the hills. 		Billy T (70)
698368 2008-08-18 10:08:00 Hi

You guys sure this is a radio antenna? Looks like an old lightning arrestor to me . Would explain why they were placed on the highest point of the building .

Using this as an antenna in a lightning storm would have been interesting!! :eek:

BURNZEE 		Burnzee (6950)
698369 2008-08-18 15:15:00 Does anybody recognise this radio antenna? ( . imagef1 . net . nz/files/Antenna-3 . jpg" target="_blank">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:

I've seen them on old barns in Pennsylvania and Ohio .

They were used as lightning arrestors and the multiple spikes were either to keep birds from alighting on them or they actually thought they'd have better results with the lightning if they made it a little angry first so it would (hopefully) strike there instead of the house or a cow .

Some (HERE) ( . ggpht . com/_Jk1Q2tPKHag/RY4Ya3WZKVI/AAAAAAAAAsE/ZWwIWZJqYKo/100_0854 . jpg" target="_blank">lh3 . ggpht . com) (HERE) ( . westmarine . com/large/185225 . jpg" target="_blank">images . westmarine . com)(HERE) ( . static . flickr . com/17/21626272_54810d4c58 . jpg?v=0" target="_blank">farm1 . static . flickr . com) (HERE) ( . chthor . com/pic/b-7 . jpg" target="_blank">www . chthor . com) (HERE) ( . lighthousetc . com . sg/lightning3 . jpg" target="_blank">www . lighthousetc . com . sg) (HERE) ( . freepatentsonline . com/D0511115-0-large . jpg" target="_blank">www . freepatentsonline . com) were quite odd in a beautiful way . 		SurferJoe46 (51)
698370 2008-08-18 19:51:00 Not the same thing SJ.
What BT is referring to is definitely a radio antenna.
I remember my father having one for radio reception when we were living out in a country area and I am certain it was called a brush aerial. 		Safari (3993)
698371 2008-08-18 22:11:00 Hi You guys sure this is a radio antenna? Looks like an old lightning arrestor to me. Would explain why they were placed on the highest point of the building. BURNZEE

Just to settle that debate:

1) They are catalogued as radio aerials.

2) Lightning arrestors are spark gaps or other devices intended to bypass energy, not rods or structures intended to encourage the energy to make love elsewhere and leave the protected structure alone.

3) The ceramic base is an insulator, not required on a lightning rod and in fact it would probably explode in the event of a lightning strike due to heat and expansion.

4) The aerials mount on the eaves at gutter level, not at the peak of the roof.

5) Nobody in their right mind would try to attract a lightning strike to the top of their house, the copper overflow/pressure pipe for gravity HW feeds is bad enough.

Lightning follows as direct a path as possible on its way up (yes, up! A tracer comes down and pre-ionises the path, then the lighning bolt goes upwards) and side-strike is messy inside a house. It is usually side-strike that gets you if you shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm.

Cheers

Billy 8-{) :eek: 		Billy T (70)
698372 2008-08-18 22:16:00 Hi

You guys sure this is a radio antenna? Looks like an old lightning arrestor to me . Would explain why they were placed on the highest point of the building .

Using this as an antenna in a lightning storm would have been interesting!! :eek:

BURNZEE

I agree Burnzee .

It was interesting . :lol:

But they did used to come with a lightning arrestor that screwed to the side of the house . The Aerial went on one end and the other was earthed, often to the same earth rod as the radio, which wasn’t a half decent earth anyway . A lot of people saved the expense of buying one of these arrestors and used an old sparkplug . :lol:

The joke was that after all this rigmarole the improved reception came from the lead-in wire .

Them were the days . :) 		B.M. (505)
698373 2008-08-19 02:08:00 The brush would give a bit of capacitive top loading (not enough to be really useful at MF) to the "leadin" wire which is the actual antenna. As an antenna it's a very good backscratcher. Graham L (2)
698374 2008-08-19 02:54:00 Perhaps the manufacturer thought the antenna, general, alternate symbol (library.thinkquest.org) was the construction drawing ? R2x1 (4628)
698375 2008-08-19 04:34:00 Perhaps the manufacturer thought the antenna, general, alternate symbol ( . thinkquest . org/10784/circuit_symbols . html" target="_blank">library . thinkquest . org) was the construction drawing ?

Very good RXx1 . :thumbs:

Yes, that was about where their usefulness finished . :lol:

However, it would seem they sold plenty before the gullible public woke up . 		B.M. (505)
698376 2008-08-19 05:14:00 We must assume B bought one and is now left with egg on face.

One born every minute,or so it is said. 		Cicero (40)
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