jimlux wrote:
> Neal Campbell wrote:
>
>> The greatest story on this is from a show on PBS about Fractal Geometry.The
>> first half of the show is about how skeptical and belittling the mathmatical
>> world was about fractal geometry when it could be proven over and over and
>> seen recurring everywhere in nature.
>>
>> The second half of the show was about the practical applications of fractals
>> and they spent quite a bit of time telling the story of Nathan Cohen who as
>> a ham started to wonder if antennas would benefit from fractal design and
>> wrote a paper in Communications Quarterly. He kept going, finally starting
>> up the Fractal Antenna company which sells antennas it seems in the cell
>> phone market, etc.
>>
>>
>
> More correctly, he sells licenses to use the patent, and hopes to get
> investors. They probably do make some antennas.
>
> As others have pointed out, there's an infinity of ways to make a
> physically small antenna, if you're willing to give up gain or
> bandwidth. Fractals are but one, and lend themselves to sexy marketing
> materials.
>
> Note also that just because the Dept of Defense or NASA buy something
> doesn't mean that it actually is any better than anything else. For all
> you know, they bought it for test purposes.
>
What the DOD purchasing something that might not be the best ?..That'd
be like taking the guns off fighter planes because well never need them
with missiles<:-))
> There are also rumors that the inventor is fairly assertive,
See if you can find the old discussions on the reflector<:-))
> and doesn't
> take kindly to folks wanting to do "head to head" comparisons. It's
> kind of hard to legally build an example of a fractal antenna to test on
> an antenna range against, say, a meander line or loaded dipole without
> violating his patent.
Special interests have profaned both the patent and copyright systems
way beyond the original intent of those laws.
> I don't know, but he could easily put a
> restriction on purchasers of his antennas that you not publish test
> results from antenna range measurements.
>
>
> This is like various software companies that have, as a part of the
> license terms, that you cannot publish benchmark results from their
> software.
>
Microsoft is very open about that and it's in the TOS/license.
<snip> I don't doubt that Apple is the same way although I don't know.
73
Roger (K8RI)
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