[TowerTalk] Re: Reference plane for FCC power limit

[Bud Hippisley, K2KIR]

At 09:07 AM 2003-09-04, K3BU at aol.com wrote:
> It is up to us (hams) to get as much as possible into the air (antennas)....Use low loss feedline, use efficient antennas and you can produce 
>signal that you can be proud of. That's the ART of amateur radio....

Yes, I agree with Yuri.  Most of the great topics on this reflector are the direct result of amateurs attempting to squeeze the most mileage (both literally and figuratively) out of their feedline, support, and antenna systems _after_ the (1500-watt) amplifier -- all of which efforts are specifically a result of that 1500-watt limitation being "fixed" at the output of the amplifier, rather than at the antenna terminals, say.  Our willingness to experiment and our drive to make our own signal "just a little bit better" is what amateur radio is all about -- let's not confuse us with other radio services, such as the broadcast industry, which have different missions from ours.

A corollary benefit is that the resulting dialog here -- especially the contributions of folks such as W1HIS, W4EF, K6SE, W8JI and the like -- is stimulating, educational, and well worth the price of admission.  Remember,  Bohr, Planck, Einstein, et al. didn't always see eye to eye either -- and from deeper exploration of those differences came many of the most significant advances in physics during the last century.

Bud, K2KIR