Hello, TowerTalkians --
Lots of stuff to report.
The crowds are the Fluid Motion booth were often deep. LOTS of buzz on
their StepIR antenna.
It looked like our ole buddy Craig from CATS/Rotor Doc wasn't there. With
his new rotator I was sure he'd be there but something must've happened. Hope
everything is okay.
I saw Jerry Sevick, W2FMI's Transmission Line Transformers book for sale.
It was the 2001 edition so it's the most recent one. I didn't know it was
available so I guess I was out of the loop on that one. It, and the new
edition of Walt Maxwell's book, are worthwhile additions to your tower and
antenna library if you're interested at all in transmission line theory and
application.
The topic that singlehandedly has the most old wives tales and
misinformation has to be grounding. Ron Block of WR Block & Associates (Ron's
brother Roger was the founder of PolyPhaser) has come out with a software
program that does an amazing amount of work for you when it comes to
designing a ground system. I haven't installed it yet on my computer but what
I saw it gives you the amount of lightning you can expect at your QTH and
specs for just about everything. You put in the height of your
self-supporting tower (a guyed tower version is coming), distance from your
building, and some other parameters and it does the calcs for you. You can
see how much voltage is coming down your feedlines and it becomes pretty
obvious what changes to the system have to do with the values of everything.
It's a really good planning tool and also teaches you a bunch about the REAL
causes and effects of lightning energy. It'll be available from <A
HREF="http://www.championradio.com";>www.championradio.com</A> for fifty
bucks.
The strangest things I saw for sale were used 'real' slot machines and
Vidalia onions. There was also a booth for "Ohioans for Concealed Carry", a
group promoting concealed weapons laws. These folks, along with a bunch of
empty booths, show that maybe the name "Hamvention" isn't quite so true any
more since there don't seem to be enough ham businesses to fill up the place.
If you've never been there - you DO need to attend sometime. The 2-1/2
acres of flea market are worth it just by itself and it's the only place you
can talk to ALL the manufacturers.
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH
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