Fw: Re: [TowerTalk] News from Bencher

[Natan Huffman]

Dave,

We have not specified our antennas that way for about two years now.  Of
course the practicality of the issue really begs consideration as most
people don't measure VSWR at the antenna terminals.  Would you like a new
catalog so you can be "up to date?"

Per our brochure 2000, ----- "VSWR (max) is the highest value (usually at
the band edged) for a typical installation through a balun or RF choke.
Within the band, the VSWR will usually approach 1:1.  The actual VSWR
measured might be lower than these values, because coax has a small amount
of loss and this acts to smooth out the VSWR curve."

We specify the Maximum VSWR, not the minimum!  Now just how "truer" can we
be Dave?

As far as measuring the antenna gain at the feedpoint.........well, I just
don't know how to respond to that one.

By the way, our commercial customers do ask for VSWR specifications at the
end of some specified cable.  Guess our "commercials" just don't have the
same sense of humor that your commercial antenna customers do!

Finally, if you really believe the cumulative loss of a trapped antenna is 1
dB, I would like to tell you just how Miller Lite is a premium pilsner and a
national treasure.

73

Natan W6XR/2
FORCE 12 East
Ithaca, NY
force12@qth.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave" <depagnier@uswest.net>
To: "Natan Huffman" <force12e@lightlink.com>; <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2000 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Re: [TowerTalk] News from Bencher


>
>
>
> Natan Huffman wrote:
>
> > Pete and all,
> >
> > If you review our literature in a comparison to other manufacturers, you
> > will see that our gain claims much less than our competitors.  A
> > sophisticated buyer of an antenna can "wade through" the mire of
inflated
> > and untruthful ad copy, but, the a large part of the buying public will
buy
> > based on ad claims.  If we were to include our verified gain claims in
> > advertising in QST and NCJ, our "lower" gain numbers would reach a
greater
> > audience.  A customer may well look at our numbers and then compare our
> > numbers to a catalog or web page of one of our competitors where the
> > customer sees our products have "less gain" than others.  We have
position
> > with the sophisticated buyer, but Joe Six-pack makes his decision based
on
> > what he sees in the catalog or another magazine such as CQ.
> >
>
> Ahem...I own a brewery and I like good beer so you might call me a "Joe
> Six-pack". However, in as much as I like and believe in Force12 antennas,
I
> still wish the gain and vswr specs were "truer". What I mean here is that
> Force12 continues to specify antenna gain at the antenna feedpoint and
vswr with
> 100' of RG-8 thrown in between the measurement device and the antenna.
This will
> of course improve the vswr numbers because about 1dB of loss is being
added to
> the system. That's probably about equivalent to adding traps to the
system. You
> can't have it both ways; either the antenna gain and swr should be
specified at
> the antenna feedpoint, or if you must, specify them both at the feedline
input,
> with the associated1dB gain hit. Quite frankly, if commercial
manufacturers
> specified their antennas that way, they would be laughed right out of
business.
>
> 73,
> Dave
> K0QE
>
>
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>





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