Lol.....i hear chicken shit will change the target freq downward.No wonder she
couldn't get it to work.I always toyed with designing a 4 el yagi with large
elements for FM but i smartened up and spent the time on the ham band
antennas.Great story Dave.Have a good weekend. Thanks,Paul Rollinson, KE1LI
Rollinson Associates860-928-5147860-208-8814
Cell/TextPaulrollinson@sbcglobal.net Representing Component Part Manufacturers
for over 35 yearsSent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message --------From: David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net> Date:
7/30/22 8:32 AM (GMT-05:00) To: Les Rayburn <les@highnoonfilm.com>,
vhf@w6yx.stanford.edu, VHF Contesting Reflector <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] US Antenna Manufacturer Hi Les,Directive Systems
used to make a pretty FB FM broadcast antenna just for FM DXing and serious
audiophiles. It was an 8 element dual driven yagi on a 16 ft boom, optimized
for 88-92 MHz. All of the "listenable" stations were located at the bottom of
the band and that was the focus for the audiophiles. My dentist was a serious
FM listener and he was complaining to me while drilling one of my teeth, that
he could not pull in WERU, in his favorite station from Blue Hill, Maine. WERU
had it's beginnings with the help of Noel Paul Stookey, the Paul, of Peter Paul
and Mary fame. WERU was about 100 miles up the coast and his stacked array of
old Channel Master yagis was not doing it. Sometimes, he could get it in the
morrning when there was some tropo enhancement. I offered to make him something
and came up with the design after hearing what was needed. Bear in mind that
FM has the dreaded (or good) capture effect, meaning that the stronger station
will blot out any weaker station on that channel. I felt that a great pattern
was a necessary trait for FM listening and DXing. I could not get great
patterns across all of 20 MHz with any design that was practical, and still
maintain the amount of gain needed to pull in those distant stations. I settled
on a 4 MHz spam of great patterns and fantastic gain and then it all degraded
as you went above 92 MHz. It was OK up to about 95 or 96 and then would pick up
stations above that but had the gain and pattern of a bed spring.My Dentist was
thrilled. A single DS88-8 pulled in WERU all day every day, winter and summer
in stereo even!! He was so enthused that I made a 2nd antenna for him, and he
stacked them on a Rohn 25 tower. He marveled that he could rotate that array
and pick up many low power FM stations on the same frequency. I made the
antenna available to WERU listeners and the radio station even had a link on
their web page for Directive Systems. I sold a few of the yagis to the FM
translator people who used off air signals pumped into new areas, but also sold
them to end users who just wanted to hear a certain FM station. Then the
trouble began. Dealing with consumers turned out to be a huge time sink and
general time waster for me, while trying to run a small antenna shop. Not only
was I the antenna designer, but I was also the customer service agent. Any of
my employees had no background to handle customer service. I found that an
antenna that required assembly and proper siting was beyond he capacity of many
people. I remember spending so much time with one customer that I started
dreading to hear the phone ring! I finally told her that she should return the
antenna and I would refund her money. The next spring, a pickup truck appeared
in my yard. A old Mainer hobbled out of the driver's seat, while the woman who
owned the DX88-8 exited the passenger side with her large poodle. I looked in
the bed of the truck and there was only about 1/2 of the antenna. The boom was
missing along with a few elements. What was left was all covered with chicken
shit. Apparently the antenna, or what was left of it, spent the winter in her
chicken coop. The poodle saw my huge hay field and immediately bounded off
happily barking and howling and checked out his new digs. The smelling must
have been great as he had no desire to answer the calls of his master. She
started yelling and screaming at the dog to come back. The dog paid her no
attention. She started running after the poodle, while I was trying to explain
that she had forgotten to bring back most of the antenna. She was getting more
upset by the second, so I went back to the shop and talked to the old Mainer
who drove her down to my place. We both leaned against the truck while
observing the lady running all over the field chasing after the poodle. She was
now screaming vile epithets and was truly unhinged. It actually was a surreal
vision! I told her driver that it was my opinion that she had anger
management issues. He replied "Ayuh".While watching all of this, I decided that
life was too short to try to sell any product to the general public. My
customers who bought yagis and loop yagis were great. They knew what they
wanted. They always asked reasonable questions, and any problems that surfaced
would always get solved very quickly. I realized that the VHF/UHF ham
population was a great group and any time spent on the phone was very rewarding
for me. The general public? Not so much!I discontinued the FM yagi shortly
after the poodle incident.I think I still have the design available on paper.I
could write a book!73Dave K1WHSOn 7/29/2022 8:44 PM, Les Rayburn wrote:> For
those VHF weak signal operators who also enjoy FM DXing, you may be aware that
antennas for the FM Broadcast band 88-108 Mhz are nearly impossible to find now
in the US. Those available are of limited performance. Dipoles, 4-element
beams, etc.>> The days of running down to Radio Shack or an electronics shop
and buying an APS-13 fringe-FM antenna are gone.>>> InnovAntenna makes some
large OP-DES Yagis for the FM band, but they’re expensive, shipping costs to
the US are high, and delivery times have been unpredictable.>>
https://www.innovantennas.com/en/our-antennas/240/26/88mhz-108mhz-broadcast/11-element-88-108mhz-op-desInnovAntennas%20shop.html
<https://www.innovantennas.com/en/our-antennas/240/26/88mhz-108mhz-broadcast/11-element-88-108mhz-op-desInnovAntennas%20shop.html>>>
Antennland in Germany makes the famous Korner 9.2 FM antenna, which are well
built, and perform great. A few years back, I imported ten of them into the US
and sold them immediately. We discussed bringing the larger Korner 14 design to
market, but their vendor in Italy went out of business, and shipping costs
became prohibitive.>>
https://www-antennenland-net.translate.goog/3H-FM-9M19?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
<https://www-antennenland-net.translate.goog/3H-FM-9M19?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc>>>>
I believe there is a market of FM DXers and audiophiles seeking
high-performance FM antennas. Albeit a limited market, where the antennas would
have to be expensive to be profitable.>> It seems like the perfect market for a
small, specialty antenna manufacturer. There used to be such a company in Maine
that manufactured VHF weak-signal antennas. But I can’t recall who that was.>>
I’d be interested in discussing this as a business venture and am willing to
help with development costs to explore the idea further. Does anyone know a
shop that might be interested?>> 73,>> Les Rayburn, N1LF> les@highnoonfilm.com
<mailto:les@highnoonfilm.com>> 121 Mayfair Park> Maylene, AL 35114> EM63nf>>
NRC & IRCA Courtesy Program Committee Chairman> Member WTFDA, MWC>> Perseus
SDR, AirSpy + Discovery, SDRPlay RSP Duo, Sony XDR-F1HD [XDR Guy Modified],
Korner 9.2 Antenna, FM-6 Antenna, Kitz Technologies KT-501 Pre-amps, Quantum
Phaser, Wellbrook ALA1530 Loop, Wellbrook Flag, Clifton Labs Active Whip.>>
“Nothing but blues and Elvis, and somebody else’s favorite song…”>>
_______________________________________________> VHFcontesting mailing list>
VHFcontesting@contesting.com>
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting_______________________________________________VHFcontesting
mailing
listVHFcontesting@contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|