[TowerTalk] Hi-Z Antenna Stuff

[Jim Lux]

On 2/7/12 9:04 AM, Wilson Lamb wrote:
> It's disappointing to see hams doing this to each other.
> It's darn hard to see what's patentable in that schematic...tuned circuits,
> diode limiters, and buffer amps, wow, hi tech!!  ALL the math is decades old
> too, so where's the new part??  With decades of phased array use, you'd
> think this basic stuff would be ho hum for everyone!
>

I don't know what the problem with patenting and making money from your 
inventive efforts is.  You can patent something and give the world a 
license to use it, if you like.  Or you can try to keep your design 
secret. Or, you can attempt to recover your costs of doing the design 
and testing and such by finding someone to manufacture it and sell it, 
and get paid from the profits.

If anyone could make a knockoff by copying the design, then they can 
undersell you.  Sure, you can publish your design in QST and you can 
gain fame, but it's hard to make the house payment or buy food with fame.

(the real gripe I have is people who write an article in QST or QEX, 
magazines specifically aimed at home constructors, and neglect to 
mention that the design is patented, and that, no, you can't just go out 
and implement the design as written)



You can read the patent and find out why they think it is novel.  In 
general, I think it is novel.  Yes, amplifiers and limiters and such are 
standard, but a complete design is typically novel (in that nobody else 
has built or disclosed exactly that design).

You might also read the patent claims and find that it's sufficiently 
narrow that you could build something very close to it and it would work.

I doubt that the claims are for things like phased arrays.  More likely, 
it's for the specific design of the RF amplifier and interfaces.