THE MYTHICAL 10–20 M NVIS ANTENNA: A FIELD DAY FAIRYTALE

THE MYTHICAL 10–20 M NVIS ANTENNA: A FIELD DAY FAIRYTALE

Field Day. The generator’s humming, the hot dogs are barely edible, and here comes Captain 30 Years Licensed — the man who still thinks coax length is an antenna tuner. He leans in, dead serious: “So… what’s the best NVIS antenna for 10 and 20 meters?”

The camp freezes. Children cry. A Yaesu manual bursts into flames. Somewhere, Maxwell rolls in his grave so hard you could wind a 9:1 unun on him.

We gently explain (again): NVIS is low-band only. 80 and 40 meters. That’s where the ionosphere actually reflects signals down at high angles.

But our hero? He’s not buying it. Oh no. He’s convinced that if you put a 20 m dipole six inches off the ground, the sky gods will beam him across town like it’s an astral pizza delivery.

“I’ve been a ham for 30 years,” he declares proudly, as if longevity makes physics optional. Funny — you’d think after three decades, at least one ARRL handbook would’ve fallen into his lap by accident.

THE SAD REALITY

Instead of NVIS, what he really built was a fantastic dummy load with outdoor weathering capabilities. Radiation? None. Pride? Infinite. Embarrassment? Off the charts.

ALTERNATIVE CAREER PATH

At this point, we don’t recommend antennas. We recommend therapy. Or better yet, adult paint-by-numbers. Because when the instructions say “paint the sky blue,” even he can’t confuse it with “bounce RF straight down on 20 m.”