David - Re your post on (ill considered)critical comments of various antennas
and the need to attract more low band ops, etc. I think what Tom, W8JI often
says should be taken into serious consideration - that understanding the
fundementals of what technical characteristic is associated with a certain
result is the best approach as that will reduce the anecdotal, "snake-oil"
effect. I am not a practicing EE any longer and don't have anywhere near the
technical knowledge of some of the guru's here but I found myself saving lots
of time, energy and money is taking the time to understand the principals - and
in RX receiving issues there are many. I also do extensive Elmering to newbies
and counsel them the same way - those that find my help too pedantic go away
and I later find they go back to their true love hobbies like model RR, hunting
or whatever. The beauty of Topband is that to be successful one can't simply
go to HRO and spend a few kilo$. So I deeply appreciate the well considered
critical comments and discard the vacuous ones but it's interesting to note
that rarely will see one of the guru's here dismiss something out-of-hand -
they usually well position their concerns or doubts on the fundementals. 73
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