Geez
It must be a slow month... This thing seems beat to death...
For my 2 cents worth...
I'd think peer pressure / censure from the amateur community would be enough
to discourage the unscrupulous from ripping off a design.
For those trying to duplicate a design... More power to you. Since last
active, I've noticed a BIG change in commercial construction.
I bought / built quite a few yagis circa 1990. Telrex, Hy-Gain, Mosley, Cush
Craft. Generally, these were easy to duplicate. Even easier to build out
of the box. A few hours and you were done.
The CushCraft X7 I just assembled is a far cry from anything in the past (I
cannot begin to imagine an OptiBeam!). This beast took DAYS to put together -
and it ain't all that big. All kinds of parts, swags, etc (not to mention a
whole lot of miss aligned holes, lots of .062 sections that did not mate, short
on hardware, etc....) What is going on here with quality ??? (Credit Texas
Towers... They quickly sent me 3 6' 1/2" sections of .058 to complete the
elements)
Sure, I could probably duplicate it with enough time and a lot of rescaling
elements to correct for swag taper. Even more time spent optimizing 6 foot
lengths to avoid motor freight charges... More rescaling... Were those tapers
to reduce manufacturing cost, reduce wind load or simply to confound copiers???
Lots of tubing wasted - especially on the boom... All things considered,
I'd rather buy... build and erect. That way, I (us) have something that should
work plus motivated manufacturers developing new products for me (us) to
enjoy down the road.
Bill
K2EK
************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|