I agree with Walt, K8CV; John had a good answer. I disagree in a
couple of areas, however:
> The Radio Shack per se is not the solution, but is a calibration
> point on value.
I think the Heil is the calibration point on value. You plunk down a
wad (I don't want to argue "how big") of cash, you take home a
working piece of equipment that does everything advertised, and
probably everything you need. All the other options discussed involve
tradeoffs: less money/more work, spend here/save there. The Heil is
the complete package.
> The tradeoff between time and money is an individual choice, but
> you learn more when you choose the time intensive solution.
I agree, but I'm not sure how much there is to learn about building
contest headsets from commercial parts. I would rather spend my time
learning about high power RF so I can figure out what those guys on
the AMPS reflector are arguing about.
> It wasn't fun because it was a fast Renault--it was fun because
> it was a challenge and fun because of the looks he got at the
> stop lights and fun because he learned something. (And maybe
> it was fun because it made others ask "why the heck would
> somebody bother to do that?")
A good point, and one to which I fell prey during the aforementioned
college years. A considerable amount of thought went in to the
prospect of taking the "327" wings off the family Chevy in the hopes
of smoking a Dodge Dart 6 at the next light.
In all fairness to both of us, John, I wasn't looking at this from
the same perspective you were. You were seeing the ham radio, let's
build something, experiment point of view, while I was looking at it
from the "I need some stuff, let me get the best/easiest to use/most
value" point of view.
All those points are arguable, and I don't want to. But thanks for
the interesting response.
73, Rod N4SI
The DXer formerly known as N9AKE
(c) 5 November, 1996
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