[TowerTalk] Antenna database

[EUGENE SMAR]

TT:

     What do you-all think of this idea?  Among us we probably own every
conceivable Yagi, log-periodic, and other antenna, old and new, HF through
UHF, made of aluminum and presenting appreciable wind area known to hamdom.
Most (some) of us probably still have the assembly/instruction manuals.  How
'bout if one owner of each antenna model volunteers to calculate the area
for the boom, element, mounting plates, etc. for his selected skyhook(s) and
post the figures here on TT?  It took me about half an hour to figger out
the area for my Skyhawk (ten elements plus torque compensators) just by
reading the dimensions off the assembly sheet.  Area = L X diameter for the
exposed surface of each piece of aluminum, simple as that.

     I don't know about you, but I'm getting awfully disgusted finding out
that the antenna area specs in advertisements are appreciably (dangerously?)
lower than when measured or calculated by an owner.  Knowing the raw
physical areas for booms, elements, and apurtenances will give us a better
idea of the loads represented by these beasts.

     I know someone out there (probably from here in the U.S.) will probably
bring up the liability issue, e.g., I bought the antenna based on TT's
figures and it turns out the figures were wrong, etc.  However, let's all
agree that, if we do this, the info is just another set of data points to be
used with other sources of info that we evaluate in making a purchase
decision.

     What do you think?  What's missing?

73 de
Gene Smar  AD3F


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