Re: [TowerTalk] antenna choices

["john@kk9a.com" <john@kk9a.com>]

I am a big fan of OptiBeam antennas however these are two big issues that
likely hurt their business in North America.  Besides the air cargo fees,
in the U.S. you have to clear customs. This has become a complicated
process and it is easier to pay someone to do this. I think this fee is
typically well over $100.  The customs hassle could be avoided if OptiBeam
shipped a bulk of antennas to the U.S.

One time I was looking for metric tubing in the U.S. and I was
unsuccessful however many imperial sizes are close enough to work if
needed. I agree that building your own monobanders using .058 wall tubing
is pretty easy and relatively inexpensive. Designing and building
multiband antennas is much more complicated.

John KK9A



To:     <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject:        [TowerTalk] antenna choices
From:   "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom@telus.net>
Date:   Tue, 7 Apr 2015 03:32:49 -0700



###  The shipping costs on the optibeam ants is extremely expensive
to Canada.  A buddy enquired about an optibeam 40m rotary dipole..and
shipping alone was $300.00  cdn funds..which is nuts.   Optibeam  makes
good stuff... but Im not impressed with the use of metric tubing.  Another
buddy
finally found a US  source of metric tubing a few yrs back.  Dunno if they
are
still in
business or not.

##  I can buy one helluva lot of 6061-T6  or  6063-T832 tubing  for $2800.00
Price out 6063-T832  from DX engineering. A single 3 foot piece of .375 inch
OD tubing..with a .058 inch wall thickness is a measly  $1.48  !!    You can
get it
in either  3 or 6 ft lengths.   You can also buy it with the slots one end
only... or no slots
at all.   No slots on either end..and price drops a whole bunch.  Prices
go up
as OD increases.


Jim  VE7RF


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