At 11:03 AM 3/26/97 -0500, you wrote:
> BTW again, I never did say that the Sommer was a crappy antenna, I just
>said that it was unnecessarily complicated and that, if it was a screamer of
>an antenna, more people would be using them. But, hey, it's just my opinion.
>
>73, Steve K7LXC
-----
Hi Steve...you might not want to say that but I will. I'm at the top of the
Honor Roll (or was until they screwed us with OH2HH's demo in P5) and I've
used quite a few antennas. I have been using a KT34A (not an XA) since
1983; was the first to work Romeo when he signed P5RS7, the first Whiskey
to work BY1PK, and the first to work the 4J1 op by Martti in 1988. As a
fairly experienced dx op I am convinced that contacts are successfully
completed by several factors: operator intelligence (meaning listening and
then calling), antenna gain, and, in the case of phone contacts, a lousy
speech processor.
When I'm dx, I get rid of the overbroad processed stations first: I work
them and they stop calling, but over the long haul it's antenna and op knowhow.
I've conducted two tests on othe Sommers. The first was in 1990 when KP2A
phoned my and wanted comparison tests on 20, 15 and 10 between his TH7 and a
Sommers an side-by-side towers at the same height. The TH7 was in all three
cases one plus S units stronger and sounded stronger. I ran the same test
with a W4 in North Carolina, I believe, a contest station, comparing a 34XA
with a pair of non-stacked Sommers...three plus S units not in Sommers' favor.
There's going to be a thread of bullshit about this on your reflector...I
suspect you know this, but basically, I believe what DJ8NK told me (a long
time friend): if Sommers sells such a superior product why do German hams
import American beams at prohibitive prices? Why do UK hams use Moseleys
(made in England) and US imports? Why have the JA's stopped competing with
US manufacturers?
Flames cometh!!!! (from untrue North) 73
Stu Greene WA2MOE
7537 North 28th Avenue
Phoenix, Arizona 85051 USA
wa2moe@doitnow.com
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