[TowerTalk] Gotham antennas

[jeremy-ca]

> At 03:39 AM 7/10/2007, Paul Christensen wrote:
>> >I remember Gotham quite well.  I also learned the hard way that cheap 
>> >was
>> > not necessarily good!  I bought a 4 element 15 meter yagi from them 
>> > from
>> > an
>> > ad in QST.  When I put it up I could work just as many stations off the
>> > front as I could off the back and sides and with no difference in 
>> > signal
>> > strength!  The SWR was 10 to 1 at the lowest.
>>
>>The beam antennas actually worked remarkably well although they certainly
>>were not "Plug-'n-Play."   The building experience was more akin to a
>>magazine construction project with Gotham supplying most of the parts. 
>>The
>>gamma match simplified things for Gotham.  There wasn't a single component
>>used that was custom manufactured.

It was a whole lot easier for kids and other new hams to install and get a 
Gotham working well than it is today with some of the junk sold..

Many on here probably dont realize that many if not most high scholls had a 
radio club back then with a teacher as an advisor/trustee and many older 
hams were glad to mentor kids who didnt have a wise mouth.

I went thru two high schools and the advisors in both were EE's who doubled 
as science instructors. If it wasnt for them Id probably have been dead or 
in jail following the "On The Road" philosphy of Jack Kerouac. Funny, but 
Kerouac is now a hero in the local city of Lowell, MA.

Carl
KM1H