Fw: Re: [TowerTalk] News from Bencher

[wa4dou@juno.com]

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: wa4dou@juno.com
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Cc: towertalk@contesting.com
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 07:22:45 -0400
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] News from Bencher
Message-ID: <20000714.072249.-1032303.5.wa4dou@juno.com>

Hi All,
  I certainly don't begrudge Tom if he received a patent on the open
sleeve matching concept. Force 12 has done a lot of good for the amateur
radio antenna market. I believe the recent trend towards more truthful
gain claims from Cushcraft and possibly others, is a direct result of
Force 12 and M2 being there. 
  However, i don't think its necessary to hide ones head in the sand when
it comes to recognizing that often, ideas that become marketable and even
patentable, grow out of earlier times and others research. In my copy of
Orr's book "Beam Antenna Handbook" ,1965, one sees "interlaced elements
on a common boom; antenna designs employing linear loading;etc. How many
years now have we seen tv antennas with a few rearward vhf elements and
forward uhf elements? Reminds me of the concept of "forward stagger."
These ideas have been around. Tom employed them and gave us better
antennas. Force 12 has obviously stimulated competition in the
marketplace. We all benefited! 73 Roy WA4DOU
p.s. Anyone noticed that the "closed sleeve" concept is just a slight
variation on the "fan dipole?"

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