Jim Brown wrote:
>> It would be interesting to see a printout of all the diameters,
>> lengths wall thicknesses and any other relevant info for each of
>> the aluminum tubing pieces that comprise one of these 66' vertical
>> antennas.
>>
>
> Yes, it certainly would. But DXEngineering PAID an engineer to
> design that antenna, and they deserve to sell that product to
> recover their costs. It's what's called free enterprise.
>
>
And purchasing the tubing is free choice. Almost any one on here could
design an antenna like that in just a few minutes if they had a list of
tubing sizes. OTOH all they'd have to do is call the local aluminum
tubing distributor (we have a large one in Saginaw about 20 miles from
here), Ask what they had that would slip together to make something like
that and they'd even do the work for you and it'd be cheaper still..
For the base you get a piece of PVC conduit and U-bolts. This is about
as minimal an antenna you can get with the exception of a dipole and as
easy to design. Of course there are many "manufactured" dipoles in use
out there too. <:-))
You can't drive a car for less than 50 cents a mile unless it's old AND
paid for. People make the mistake of thinking it's only the cost of gas
when driving. That was with gas cheaper than we have now, but what we
have now isn't going to stay cheap. At-any-rate, it'd cost me a minimum
of $20 to drive my old car to Saginaw and back so maybe I'd get enough
to build three or four and take a couple hams with me.
If some one wants to purchase one from either company that is fine. OTOH
it's fine if they want to build one as well. That too is free enterprise.
I'd normally build one, but if time were of the essence I'd probably
purchase one. After all we aren't talking about amounts that would
break most of us. OTOH in this economy I'd not want to neglect saving
where I can.
Now it's back to the shop where my supposedly stable Vista Ultimate ate
most of the programs on the computer and it took less than 30 seconds to
do it. Oh, and the fan impeller for the top end video card fell off the
motor shaft, which then over heated and shut down another computer.
<sigh> There are drawbacks to "doing it yourself"<:-)) But I have to
admit computers are easier to work on than plumbing and take fewer trips
into town. OTOH with all the Hard Drives running on the network
failures are not uncommon.
73
Roger (K8RI)
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