> I would want a lot more info before spending any money. > > The BB7V is priced at US$400. It's a 22 foot vertical aluminum radiator > with a nice mast clamp (mast not included) and a cylindrical feedpoint > device. > > The big question is: What's in the feedpoint device?
Sandy wrote of an earlier example: >... the "device" ... was a "black box" type "proprietary" antenna coupler. >The price was rather high ($300-400) and it was guaranteed "flat SWR" >between 3-30 Mhz.... > BEWARE of ANY "MAGIC DEVICE" that makes these claims. >More than likely it is a large pile of bovine fecal matter that they >are feeding you! That was about 25 years ago, and it was a QST review that exposed this scam. The x-ray showed some junk PCB board that had been potted with the 50 ohm resistor, so that it would appear to have circuitry, should someone actually x-ray the unit. Vic wrote: > I agree with Jim. Put up a dipole and spend the leftover $395 on beer. No truer words have ever been written! Even honestly described and advertised HF verticals without a very very very good radial system are terrible performers compared to a simple dipole. Commercial *portable* verticals are especially so, and are also usually absurdly expensive. An example of a money and power waster is the Outbacker-series with their "ground coupling" base for portable use. It is one of those $400 "systems" that performs very poorly, compared to a $5 dipole. I've done side-by-side testing of both on several occasions. I was tempted to repeat the old saw about there being no such thing as a free lunch, but that would be wrong. The simple dipole is very close to being free, and it will normally way outperform any HF vertical no matter how much money is dumped into some expensive "exotic" or bogus design. Reports of success using HF verticals with poor radial systems only show that sometimes contacts can be made with the poorest of radiators. Friends don't let friends use portable HF verticals! 73, Mike / KK5F _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
