Tonight's presentation was on slinky antennas - yes, the toy slinky that we all grew up with and can be purchased at Walmart for five bucks. Coils of conductive materials have very useful properties in electronics and making an antenna out of a coil of wire allows for the antenna to be a lot physically shorter than if it was made from straight wire.
Antennas are tuned to a specific length for the frequencies you want to work and some of these can be quite long - two-hundred and sixty feet for one commonly used 'band'. Using a slinky allows this to be shortened to 30 feet for the same frequencies (80 meters).
Here are some links to slinky antennas: Here, here, here, and here. Lots more on Google
Trash day tomorrow so loading up the bin and wheeling it out to the curb.
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