[TowerTalk] builders vs operators Re: HAMFESTS & Ham Businesses

[Jim Lux]

At 12:11 PM 1/4/2006, kd4e wrote:
>My suggestion was that a business owner who found
>himself unable to locate a buyer might choose to
>make a donation to a non-profit as a tax write-off
>rather than have the technology disappear from the
>marketplace.
>
>I respect intellectual property and while it would
>seem selfish to hoard it (given no probablity of sale
>by oneself or to another) that is the right of its
>owner.
>
>The percentage of turnkey system ops vs those who
>build their own antennas and gear appears to be
>shrinking

Is it really?  I'd venture that back in the days, there were a fair number 
of turnkey ops.
And these days, a lot of the building is spread out over more 
disciplines.  Lots of folks writing DSP code, for instance.  Or building 
microwave/2.4 GHz antennas.

It's true that there's fewer "tinkering with yagi" kinds of articles (or 
manufacturers), but that might just be because Yagi technology (especially 
with modern modeling tools) is fairly mature.  Those self same tools 
prevent someone from claiming that they have a miraculous new design with 
10 dB more gain.