At 10:31 AM -0500 1/28/03, Barry W2UP wrote:
>At one time, I had a Comet wattmeter rated for 2 KW, and when
>operting RTTY, after about 15 seconds keydown at 1 KW, the needle
>started dropping off. Thought my amp was losing power until I tried
>another wattmeter.
I'm having difficulty thinking of fields of human endeavor outside
ham radio, where actual product performance is more substantially and
consistently worse than advertised.
So far I've been able to think of only two: (1) the quack medicines
or herbal remedies or whatever they're called, that I hear advertised
on the radio -- you know, the stuff that'll restore your memory, your
eyesight, your virility,....; and (2) one that I won't mention for
fear of starting a flame war and being banned from this excellent
list.
QST very sanctimoniously proclaims that they won't allow antenna
advertising that includes gain figures; yet every month QST carries
ads for so-called "legal limit" and "high power" antenna tuners that
-- ARRL's own lab testing reveals -- dissipate 30 to 40 percent of
the applied RF power if the antenna is a G5RV driven at 3.5 MHz.
-Chuck, W1HIS
|