[Amps] new amp race

[Catherine James]

Bill Turner <dezrat at outlook.com> wrote:

> I think you misunderstand. I and others did not say not to buy one,
> but rather to put your money into antennas first, THEN invest in an
> amp. Everyone's situation is different of course, but that is still good advice. 

Bill,

My QTH is riddled with antennas, so I'm hardly going to object to advice
to build a few more. :-)  There are pieces of a 2-meter Quagi and a tribander
VHF/UHF quad out on the workbench right now. The Beverage in the woods
needs to be fixed, and I was up on the roof a few days ago fixing the 
alignment of the hexbeam and VHF 6/2 beams.

My issue isn't really with antennas, but with *towers*. 

There are far too many hams out there who are constantly hounding other
hams to put up a tower, and I hear a recurrent sentiment that "real hams" are those
with towers. You get extra points if you mixed the concrete yourself, and sawed
off the donated Rohn yourself too. :-/

There are plenty of us out there who have been hams for 20+ years, have
built nice stations, and are good operators, but will never have a tower for
a variety of reasons. The level of effort, time, cost etc. required to put up and
maintain a tower is a good "10 dB" greater than the effort needed to get, repair,
and maintain a kilowatt amp.

My apologies if I read too much into your suggestion to put up good antennas,
and there wasn't a hidden "get a tower" in there. :-)

73,
Cathy
N5WVR