[TowerTalk] YO and Brian... Perspective...

[Mel]

Re Brian... I don't know him... My dealings with him have been without
problem...

I suspected he might be a bit odd... His "low profile" is strange for
someone selling a product...

However, YO is a terrific program... And after all... I'm just buying
software from him... I'm using Windows here, and really don't care if
Bill Gates is a nice guy or not ;-)

Here's an interesting experience I just had this weekend... It gives you
some idea why YO is so damn useful!

Last couple of weeks, I put up 3 monobanders...

The 10 and 15 yagis were spot on as per calculations... But the 20 meter
antenna was resonant at 13.850 and F/B was less than the designed
25db... Seemed about 15db. I had no idea of the impact on gain... So I
was worried.

Well it turns out that when Hy-gain switched from the 205BA to the
205CA, ( was using a 205BA I retuned to 205CA specs) the center section
of tubing was changed on just one element (D1)... And since it doesn't
come up in the measuring, I missed it... (my bad)

Having re-read the manuals, and suspecting this was the case... I
recalculated the antenna performance assuming the part substitution...
And it calculated out to a resonant frequency of 13.850 and a F/B of
about 16db... Exactly as measured... Loss of gain in the amateur band
was less than 1/3 of a db.

So as a result of YO, I can order the part without climbing the tower,
and operate with confidence knowing that the "mistake" really only
impacts my SWR and F/B... An antenna with 6+ db free space over a dipole
at 150' works very well, even if the SWR is a tad high! In addition I
can plan the repair, which won't require removing the antenna from the
tower as the problem, fortunately, is with the one element I can reach
from the tower. Before verifying with YO I was planning to take the
antenna down, a bear of a job on a guyed tower that requires
professional ($$$) help.

YO has paid it's way many time over. I highly recommend it if you build
Yagis commercial or otherwise... Now if it would only optimize
interlaced yagis... Hopefully a future version...

Mel...
VE2DC