The AM Forum

The mystery antenna shown by Phoenix Technology had the academics pulling their hair for 2 days as demos were given on various HF bands.

I watched one MIT PhD type start as a full skeptic, walk away and come back with his remote rig access doodad. Transmitted on 75, and listened to his signal relayed from his home in VT. Then reversed the procedure. Loud S9+ both ways with 100W.

Its apparently different enough that the inventors have filed patent paperwork and are not releasing much detail yet so it was hidden in the box on the ground. Nor were they taking orders or any other questionable activity.

Carl
KM1H

Discussed here.

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=19587.0

I'm a skeptic. To put it into context....

I once ran 75M tests on a 9' mobile whip with a big loading coil compared to a full-size 75M dipole.  I had the Blazer truck with the whip parked out in a field and the full-size dipole at 60' about 200' away from the truck.  When switching between A/B repeatedly, there was usually a 15db difference on average for stations that were about 100 miles away or more.  This was done for both receive and transmit.


My point is that even a 9' whip on a truck using a poor groundplane is down only about -15db to a full size dipole. (-20db at most)  So, one would expect any small antenna to make a good showing of itself - if within 15db.  That's like about 4 watts into a full size dipole at 60'. (compared to 100w into the mobile whip) Many guys have great signals running even 10w riceboxes into 75M into dipoles.


Bottom line is, until we find out how to use superconductors and make a 2 foot long 75M Yagi with an input impedance of 0.01 ohms work efficiently, there is nothin new under the sun.... ;D

T

 

Could this be one of those EH or CFA antennas that was introduced to the AM bcst band industry 10 to 20 years ago?  I believe they rearranged Maxwell's equations and supposedly proved electrically short antennas could perform as effeciently as full size antennas.
Some W5 was a big proponent of this for Ham radio.  He was saying one could build one of these antennas, supposedly not much larger then a shoebox, put it on your closet shelf and work 80mtrs with only 100watts and of course, all around good signals.  Doesn't everybody have one of these? ;-).

I always thought wave acceleration along the "wire" had something to do with antenna effeciency; the longer the better.  I really don't know, but I bet Walt W2DU knows a bit of theory on this subject.

Bill N4WC

A Hammarlund Super Pro?

There's one way to get to the bottom of it all...  put up a 75M dipole and compare the two A/B.

We should have axed to carry the "Antenna in a Box" (AIB) over to QIX's or Dale's 75M dipoles and run some tests.

If they really want to impress people, then put up a 75M dipole as a comparison at the next fall Nearfest.


Precautions:

1) Be sure to lower the dipole when testing the AIB to insure the AIB is not coupling into the dipole.

2) Be sure there are no power lines close by that can cause coupling and radiation.

3) Be sure the AIB is not using the power line system as a ground to reduce its vertical component losses, assuming it is of vertical polarization... unless this is part of the intended design.

4) Be sure to test it on 75M where the AIB physical length is far from a full size antenna to prove if there is something really going on in the AIB.

5) Drop a one minute dead carrier for both antennas and have at least three stations in widely varied locations listening. Each will report back their estimate of the average signal and the peak signal during the one minute carrier test.


I'd be curious to see a test like this for the Isotron antenna too.  Has anyone bothered to do so?  The AIB could become a big hit if marketed well. Most new apt dwellers don't have the knowledge or simply don't bother to dig deeper than reading anecdotal ham stories of how they were "59" in Algiers using the new miracle antenna.

If the AIB  is closer than -12db to a full-size 75M dipole, (better than a mobile whip on 75M) I will be impressed.


BTW, the guy said it was NOT a loop inside the box. However, from his verbal polar plot elevation pattern description, I got the impression it was vertically polarized. Also, he said he wasn't sure if moving it above the ground would help much, but was worth testing, which also indicated vertical polarization.   I didn't see any liquid nitrogen tube connections running in, so it's not using super conductors.  ;-)

I wonder if it's using large ferrite rods with wire wound around them - tapped for the various bands, using the open wire and ant tuner for matching? Just a guess though.

A axed him if I bought eight AIB's, could I hang them on a long tram line and phase them like a phased array. He encouraged me to try and let him know how it worked out... ;D


Hey, if anything, they're getting a lot of publicity for the roll-out!


T

Hey Tom, it was nice to run into you there, its been a long time.

I know one of the co-inventors quite well and he is a bit eccentric but not a flake. He is the guy in the Merchant Marine Radio Officer uniform, Dave Ring, N1EA.

I leaned on the other guy a bit late Saturday when the traffic was nil.

Its not A loop but rather several in series. No ferrites.

Bandwidth on 75 without retuning is around 100 khz.

The voltages on the "balanced" feedline are very high

Not supposed to be better than a dipole, the concept is for apartment dwellers, restricted condos, and similar where nothing else is permitted or works. Supposed to be completely ground independent. Heck it was sitting on sand at Nearfest.

It will be sold as a kit in the $200 dollar range. It will fit in a plastic garbage can.

Supposedly the initial inventor has found a loophole in Maxwell and all the others which will be divulged as soon as the Patent Applied For stuff is returned. He knows his theory and I couldnt trip him up. They dont want it to be a secret.

Im trying to get it here for evaluation and comparisons.

Im a natural skeptic but the damn thing intrigues me.

Carl
KM1H

I would think it is multiple loops to get the voltage higher. As I moved in front of it HUZ said I was modulating the VSWR. Maybe the switch box switched them between series and parallel depending on frequency. I read an Army study of multiple loop configurations and they concluded a single 1 turn loop generated the best field and the best matching was a cap across the feed and one in series with the loop.

Interesting, Carl -

Yes, it was fun comparing various antenna war stories with you at NearFest.

The AIB - I assume it's vertically polarized then?

If so, it might be harder to compare, needing a full-size vertical with a good ground system. As we know, it could be down up to -40db locally compared to a horiz dipole cuz of the high angle null on verticals.

A loophole in Maxwell's equations?   That would be something -  and in line for a Nobel prize for physics.... :-)

We're probably being a little hard on them with our fun, so we'll cut them some slack since you can vouch for their expertise. Let us all in on the test results as soon as you get some, OK?

Later -

T

Sounds like a side benefit for Planned Parenthood.

Carl
KM1H

No plans to be a parent any time in the future I'm done.
I didn't feel any heat

Ive known Dave for years Tom, I met Mike for the first time on Friday when Dave yanked me out of passerbys as I was sorta checking out a nice body on the other side. ;D I miss lots of radios that way......

IF I get a chance to play with it, or build one once the design is released, the forum will be the first to know.

I dont think it will handle the power that many of us on here run.

Carl
KM1H

so get a bigger box! Honestly I hope it works well. The magic behind small antenas has always interested me.

 "  It will be sold as a kit in the $200 dollar range. It will fit in a plastic garbage can. "

Is this that 'forshadowing' thing they talked about in high screwl?

klc

 

take the primary inductor on your link tuner. Why not go directly to 377 ohms and skip the secondary, feeders and antenna.
RX would still be an issue.

I also talked to Mike about a 4 square and mutual coupling. Dont know if that was before or after Tom but his head was in full bobbing mode as he was taking notes.

If this thing is even half as good as a 80M vertical over poor ground the possibilities of a decent directive signal from a small lot will change a lot of thinking and operating. Even more so on 160. Just visualize a green garbage can in each corner of a small surburban lot ;D  The wife can even have a flower box on top.

Carl
KM1H

I wonder about the "high voltage" on the feedline they mentioned. That openwire spacing is set up for something like 100KV +++.   They  were using a small MFJ class tuner.  The feedline was pretty short, so the tuner would see most all the voltage generated at the load.  How could a tuner like that (or any average ham tuner) possibly take a  level of voltage that is suggested by that wide line spacing?

Probably in the next version they will use a smaller and more reasonably spaced openwire line.

T

I think someone said the feedline WAS the antenna. The box was there just to draw your attention away from the feedline.  :D

  " the feedline WAS the antenna "

Lying on the ground like that... A stealth NVIS antenna ?.......


klc

Maybe it's not really ladder line at all but to fake you out; RG-6 rf in to the box, one cable out with bridge reflected power or remote tuner serial data?

This brings to mind the URI antenna from a few years back.

http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=2659 (http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/?id=2659)

Can't say that I've heard or seen much after all the initial hype. But then again, I haven't been on the lookout for it.

Check the review on EHAM for it.

Sheesh, had I been the inventor of the antenna, I would have fled in shame off the reveiws on eham, not to mention the other sites.

I especially like Tom Rauch's reply. 

It seems his antenna was nothing more than a cb antenna, a loaded whip with a tap.  Wilson still makes them, and they actually make decent radiators.  I ran across an article someone had online of using the Wilson Silver Load CB antennas with longer stingers on (I think) a semi-truck, and in comparison to the other antennas he tried, it beat them or matched them.

--Shane

Steve,
If you remember I was moving near the box away from the feedline. I was doing that to avoid coupling to the feeders.
I bet the feeders were wide to raise the Z a bit so the tuner would work.
My guess he coupled RF into that switch box and welded the contacts requiring the vise grips

The AIB reminds me of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Just need some AAMCO transmission apes and some bones  used to beat each other right into the future and maybe no feedline will be necessary.

It seems to me... 

Antennas seem to be an area of Black Magic. Mostly because it's difficult to determine real performanec numbers for real antenna installtions. We have to infer a lot from sketchy data. Most amatuers rely soley on VSWR indications as a prediction of antenna performance.  Some measure other parameters, like feed point impedance, but I think few of the population actually know how to apply the numbers (I wouldn't with out reading alot).

Antennas in the HF range are hard to accurately evaluate. Microwave horns and yagis were easy. Put them on the Goni in an Anachoic chamber with a reference dipole. Transmit a with a calibrated signal and bingo, You plot real performance compared to a nearly isotropic radiator, I say nearly because there were tiny but measurable differences in a reference cal. Nothings perfect, but often Close Enough is.   

Since you can't do that with a large HF antenna, we're stuck with labor intensive field strength measurements Someone driving around and checking over a fairly wide area.  Unfortunately that can be subject to environmental effects, and few hams go to the trouble of running those measurements anyway, at most if we have the real estate you can get an A/B measurement, which is fine for relative performance for your particular setup but it begs the question, relative to what? Ideally we'd A/B with an Isotropic radiator, but who's got one of those?

So we go the simple route,  with anecdotal evidence being sufficient to claim either outrageous sucess or dismal failure.  How many of use have either heard or said, "I put up that new XYZ Diaper Pole and I worked 72 stations with DX etc. etc. etc."  The other side of the coin is the dismal failure of a new installation.  Do people check propagation prior to these test transmissions? Check DX spots? Compare the antenna to another local hams station performance.  It seems that few of us actuall take a real scientific approach to antenna work, with the exception perhaps of modeling the ants.  With so many variables effecting a single peice of equipment in the shack, it's no wonder the Antenna and it's performance is subjected to so much argument and discussion.

So evey once in a while, someone builds a radiator that gets out a signal, and makes claims of awsome performance. And then the REAL fun begins.  ;D

How does one measure "Amazing performance!  ?

Last night, I downloaded a new update to my SDR receiver...

Fired it up, and there on 3885 were Bob k1kbw, Bill  kc2ifr, and several others...

All were over s9,  though Bob should have been stronger, so I thought the band was long.
It was after 10pm. maybe almost 11p.

After listening for a few rounds, I came to the realization that there was no antenna connected!

There had been t-storms earlier, and the coax was disconnected outside, and inside, and the Ant switch was on the dummy-load.

4 feet of rg-8u, to the switch, then 2 feet to the "bird"  military type dummy-load.

I thought the dummyload acted great as an antenna!

Now, If I had tried calling them, I doubt they would have heard me, but sure was working ok fine for RX.

Replace that 6 feete of coax, with wide-spaced feedline, and I bet if would give Amazing Perfomance!

 ;D

It's pretty funny how well a dummy load can apparently hear and transmit. I have a friend I chat with on 75 meters frequently, who is about 50 miles away. He is usually 50 to 60 over, but now and then I will hear him call at S-2 or S-3 when he forgets to switch from the dummy load. I guess there's enough incidental coupling across switches and lengths of coax to radiate a couple of hundred milliwatts. As I recall, the Maxx-Com company actually marketed this with their "solid-state-no-moving-parts-antenna-tuning-device" that you installed up at the antenna feedpoint. Just a big dummy load with attachment points for your wires of any length. They must still be laughing about that one...

Let's chip in, buy one, and give it to Tom to play with.   He could compare it not just to a dipole but to all manner of crazy things. 

How could he refuse a present like that?

We had that conversation with the inventor and suggested Tom buy a bunch of them to hang between two towers and phase them. This could generate such a concentrated beam of energy that tower legs could melt running AM in old buzzard mode.

Maxx-Com is gone.. or has no apparent website. Making an antenna or matching box that is essentially a dummy load has been very popular with many entities. The government loves them becaue there is no tuning involved.

I have a navy VHF antenna that is rated 1KW from 108 to 175MHz. It is in the shape of a cylindrical radome about 10" diameter at the bottom abnd 6" at the top. Inside is a copper pipe that goes straight up, makes a 180 degree bend, and comes straight down to terminate into a high power 100 Ohms resistor. very wide. RX is 3-6dB down over a 5/8 wave vertical on 2M.

Then there is the B&W no-tune NVIS dipole. It uses a balun to match the 50 Ohm coax to it, and the wires go out 50FT on each side, drop down about 18", then come back to the midle into a quite large 600 Ohm resistor.

Max-com was just selling the balun and resistor and the user supplied the wire.

Interesting news but it sounds like the inventors have no illusions about this taking the place of a full size decent antenna, so kudos to them for at least not trying to sell with exaggerated bs marketing like a few dozen ham companies over the years (few dozen?  maybe more).  

With 100 w. a good antenna on 40 meters say, should average signal reports of around 20 dB over S9, after making multiple QSOs around N. America over the winter months.  Higher sig. strength even better.  Everyone probably remembers the now sort of famous "everything works" article in QST about 8 years ago by the Force-12 guy (can't remember his name).  A light bulb works.  

The thing to do to evaluate this antenna is put up some kind of standard reference antenna, say a 1/4 w. vertical over 60 radials and conduct field strength measurements with a FIM at a constant distance in several directions with a constant power RF delivered to the feed point.  Then do the exact same thing with the AIB controlling for everything as much as possible so the only variable is the AIB.  Then you will know how much RF in uV per meter it is getting into the air vs. the reference antenna and you will have some bankable information removed from propagation and guys looking at wildly calibrated S meters.  ARRL should do something like this with every antenna made for hams but they won't, maybe because it might hurt ad revenue  ;)

Does the ARRL have the antenna farm and equipment to do tests like that? seems like they would. Well i hope the plywood box antenna really does work. It would be a benefit to those that can't put up big antennas. The reception of signals is what matters most to me and I've tried every whacky idea there is, including running a piece of wire 4 times around the walls of the room near the ceiling, each "turn" about 2" from the next. It did work, but not well, and it picked up every noise and garbage from every wire in the house. The boogler alarm is the biggest offender.

I was not gainsaying the inventors of the new antenna. I was adding my rant o the Maxx-Com matcher and comparing it to other products.

No problem; ARRL may not have space now (they used to have W1AW tx with a rhombic but I think they took that down and sold the land) but they could do something with a moderate amount of land.  A reference vertical need only be a wire held up with a balloon on a calm day and the radials can be simply laid out flat on the ground for one day of tests.   Take a few readings in six equally spaced on the compass locations all 1 Km from the antenna.  Do the same thing with the AIB the next day.  You can drive around with a FIM in a car and get out and take readings at the right GPS determined spots.  Fudging a bit to avoid trespassing is okay--it's not a broadcast proof of performance.  If they need land and money they could shut down and sell W1AW.  Evaluating antennas in an authoritative way would be a way bigger service to hams than W1AW is now.  When was the last time you listened to anything W1AW transmitted? 

Speaking of mystery things in a box, a few years ago some guy at Dayton was marketing an improved and modernized WRL Globe King.  It was supposed to be the ultimate ham AM transmitter.  He wanted around $4000 for one.  There were one or two issues of QST that had half page display ads for this thing.  I think only one was made and he had it at Dayton under shrink wrap and he wouldn't let anyone see inside the cabinet.   A year or two later some competent technician got it in to his shop somewhere in Calif. to make it actually work as a transmitter and he destroyed it in an eHam review--the facts made it obvious the whole thing was a complete sham.

Maybe the AIB guys should hook up with the AM-VA guys.

http://www.am-va.com/index.htm

Ground Permitivity?  ? ? ? ? ? ?  ??? ???

That part is actually legitimate. I think they are using that term instead of the possibly more familiar dielectric constant term. The two are related. Dielectric constant is actually relative static permittivity (relative to the permittivity of a vacuum). Permittivity is a more exact or detailed way of describing the ground or any other material, but we in amateur radio most often use dielectric constant and over HF, it is sufficient.

yup, just spelled a little off...

From an online source.....................

"Permittivity, also called electric permittivity, is a constant of proportionality that exists between electric displacement and electric field intensity. This constant is equal to approximately 8.85 x 10-12 farad per meter (F/m) in free space (a vacuum). In other materials it can be much different, often substantially greater than the free-space value, which is symbolized eo.
In engineering applications, permittivity is often expressed in relative, rather than in absolute, terms. If eo represents the permittivity of free space (that is, 8.85 x 10-12 F/m) and e represents the permittivity of the substance in question (also specified in farads per meter), then the relative permittivity, also called the dielectric constant er, is given by:
er = e / eo
= e (1.13 x 1011)
Various substances have dielectric constants er greater than 1. These substances are generally called dielectric materials, or simply dielectrics. Commonly used dielectrics include glass, paper, mica, various ceramics, polyethylene, and certain metal oxides. Dielectrics are used in capacitors and transmission lines in alternating current (AC), audio frequency (AF), and radio frequency (RF) applications. ""

During the Y-2K joke my company installed the Motorola ALE  radios to all of our Nat Gas storage facilities and pumping stations,,,spread out over several hundred miles. We even had a mobile ALE installed in an all terrain vehicle.
The B&W NIVIS antenna was an ok thing but used up a lot of real estate and was not that flat over the HF spectrum. The freqs assigned to us by the Feces were in the not so perfect part of the range of that antenna. And with SWR foldback it was a challenge to make contact all the time with band condx changing, but that was supposed to be the magic of the ALE system.
We only used the barefoot power of the radio.
A really nice radio that was not user friendly, but had great specs!!!
FRED

He was a total RIPOFF. Many made orders and paid in advance and never received product.
FRED

many made orders? how many people would pay $4000 for a unknown rig.
I don't know anybody that stupid

BTW, I ran into the inventor of the wood box at his place of work. He didn't remember me but fed my tech a pile of crap about his invention. Tom and Huz were getting a demonstration of a tune up as I modulated his swr by moving in front of the antenna. He looked like he was trying to chase a chicken.

Sometimes I wish this forum had a "like" button. 

That's too funny :)

--Shane
KD6VXI

Funny, you should have seen the car he drives

well, did the secret wood box antenna work or not? If so how well? we will likely never know unless it gets a real honest test.

Seems to me I remember someone telling me 30 to 40 were actually made (no way to confirm this) and delivered. At least one went to a New England state, at least one to someone in Long Island, and the rest scattered across the U. S. Given its history, there probably are not too many that will step forward claiming ownership of one.

"    how many people would pay $4000 for a unknown rig.
I don't know anybody that stupid    "

We're all over the place.


klc

Dave Ring, the other half of the team, told me that it turns out the coax feeding the box was doing the radiating and he got out of the project. Id suggested that and that he try some ferrite beads.

However during the Nearfest demo a bystander asked if he could do a quick test. The rig was on 75 and he hooked up with a net in VT and got a S9+20 report. Thats a hell of a lot of RF getting out of just 10' of coax on the ground. I doubt if a mobile rig next to him could have received a fraction of that report.

OK Fine! I'm not looney.......there WERE people who had advanced orders and paid in full waiting. What was pictured were beautiful replicas of Globe King. There were reports that what was inside was pretty bad news.
Too good to be true
Fred

Except for the front panel pulling off the chassis when the rig was lifted up (sheet metal screws) - and the chassis collapsing under the weight of the transformers, I hear it was a well built rig... ;D

T

Where could I find a ready comparison with inside pics of the original GK and the 'repro'? Just so as not to make a dreadful mistake. I found the three original manuals on BAMA mirror. Have not found the repro's manual yet.

I loved this from the AM-VA site:

"One interesting and unexpected result of our AM-VA field test involved the cattle that were grazing on the pasture where our field tests were performed.  The owner of the cattle herd indicated that his animals grazing on top of our AM-VA installation increased in body weight and weekly body weight gain when compared to similar animals in different locations on his ranch.  We were surprised by this unexpected positive result, but then found an article in the IEEE Antennas & Propagation magazine (Volume 49, No. 4, August 2007) written by James C. Lin wherein Mr. Lin found this same result from the magnetic fields near 735 KV AC high-tension power-transmission-line exposure. One wonders if the use of the AM-VA in heavily populated communities will have a similar health benefit to the local community living near the antenna.
 
With our initial tests results in, our next step will be to formally file the test results with the FCC and to ask for approval of this new technology.  We hope to have this accomplished by the end of the year and will post updates as they are available on this site."

I went to eHam to find and post here, the link to the review but it was gone.  I found the vintage radio review eHam page listing it in the internet archive (Wayback) server (www.archive.org IIRC) but the review itself has vanished.  Evidently eHam flushes out reviews occasionally based on some unknown (to me) criteria which I did not know about until now.   How about that.  

Well, anyway, the company making the so-called Globe KIng which I think they audaciously called the 500D was called VRL as I recall.  I don't know what VRL stood for (VooDoo Radio Labs?).  I remember that some of it such as the VFO was supposed to have been all solid state.   If you get a GK and the interior looks all vintage it's probably the real deal.  If it is all messed up inside looking hacked up with PC boards beware.  Actually I was under the impression only one or two were made.  I think the guy who wrote the review had a shop in Calif. somewhere and the VRL thing he got was serial no. 1.   Then another serial no. 1 surfaced somewhere else.   The whole thing was extremely fishy and smelly.  

wow. If I ever find a "D", I'll keep in mind I am looking at parts not a TX. There are stories by a couple guys on the www but those are second hand.

My guess would be its the GK pictured on this site?

http://www.angelfire.com/alt/myvintageradio/

Patrick,

There were a couple of very interesting reviews of the reborn Globe King and none were positive.  The front panel does not look exactly like the old and a quick view of the inside will clearly identify the counterfeit unit.  Or an even faster method would be to check if it actually works then it is a real one in good condition :)  I think I had already dropped my ARRL membership by then because I don't remember seeing the ad in QST.  In the olden days I think the league was fairly strict about not advertising sham/poor products. 

Another shady area in amateur radio involved the Signal One brand.  I came across a lot of interesting stories about the many iterations of Signal One when I was collecting information to restore my CX-7A last year.  Towards the end Icom IC-781 units were being modified into something labeled Signal One at high cost and it seems that in several cases both the owner's radio and funds went to never never land.  After installing all of the updates the CX-7A is a pretty good performer and I will soon be working on another Nixie readout wonder, the SBE-36.

I don't think you will have any trouble distinguishing the new from the old but I still have a problem with copies like the GK.  I made a counterfeit SPC-10 to go with my SP-600, I just need to paint and apply the decals to the front panel.  Just to make sure there is never a question I plan to engrave replica on the back of the panel and on the chassis.  Mine was made from a parts unit HQ-170 and a new rack panel.

The "new" Globe King power supply, not hard to tell from the original, WRL never used Home Depot pipe hanging strap to mount their xformers! Classy... ;)

huh. Thanks for pointing out the pictures. I don't know what to say. It's a mess, no expense spared in one place and no time or money spent in another.

From that picture, the first thing I'd add to that power supply would be some panel to chassis struts. Just imagine your toes if you lifted that thing up by the front panel as-is (held with sheet metal screws I'm told) ... ;D

T

But that cheap lightweight chassis will provide a safety crumple zone just like modern cars in a crash :) 

First we get "free bander" rigs using the Galaxy name and then this bad WRL knockoff.  Neither are anything like the originals coming out of Council Bluffs.  There were some shortcuts and odd design choices in some of the originals but they were good usable rigs.  I have a much abused Globe Scout 40 that will be resurrected one day.

I hate to state the obvious, but anyone that sent 4000 dollars to someone advertising on a free webhosting service, with an email that goes to ANOTHER free service, seriously needs their head examined.

--Shane
KD6VXI

They advertised a number of times in CQ Magazine, back around ~2002/2003 or thereabouts. Don't recall if they did any Electric Radio or QST ads.
There actually had a "demo" unit at Dayton one year at some outside spaces several aisles down from the PUB side entrance. Saw both guys later in the evening at the Saturday night CQ party.

I had a good chat with Barry of ER about this while out there picking up the 300G in 2003. He said these guys had paid for a bunch of ads and he ran them and had planned to keep doing so. Then the complaints started trickling in. Then it became a torrent. Wasn't just the Globe King junk, more of it was related to used gear they bought and sold, apparently ripping people off regularly. Barry said at that point, he gave them the axe. They squawked and threatened, he said hit the road.

I've talked with a number of people over the years who had first hand experience with them, virtually all the same: bad. The only good thing I ever heard was from Joe Walsh, WB6ACU who purchased a Collins 30K from them which was delivered and set up without issue.

From memory, there were two of them: one was the money and brains(?), the other was the tech. The names escape me now, but I think "Doc" was the money behind it all.

The fellow who did the eham review is Larry Rau W6WUH of Occidental Radio. Known him for years, he's a good guy who knows his stuff  but doesn't suffer fools well (reminds me a lot of you, Carl  ;D ). The review he did was basically the rebuild job he performed on the 500D for the Long Island owner who sent it to him at great expense after VRL (Vintage Radio Labs, IIRC) refused to help. Larry documented everything that was needed to make the transmitter actually work. He even mentioned the flimsy aluminum chassis flexing under the weight of the iron. In the end, the guy had another $1-$2K into it above and beyond the original purchase price of $2-$2.5K I *think*. Could be wrong, it's been a few years. He probably ended up wishing he'd just cut his losses and used it as a parts rig.

At one point someone (pretty sure it was Larry) let me know that they were either traveling to Paris TX or being deposed as an expert witness for a case against at least one of the guys, perhaps both. I didn't keep up with it, but if you mention the radio crooks from Paris TX at hamfests around here, a good number of the folks know immediately who you're referring to. They even had an ebay account for a while with feedback that made radio-mart look angelic.

The old adage still applies: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  ;)

As for the Glob 500 replica, (not their other used radio dealings) I'll bet they started out with good intentions as almost all ventures do. They soon realized they had bitten off way more than they could chew for the money and later tried to severely cut costs to pull it off.  In today's dollars, especially if you need to go to Peter Dahl for iron, that rig could cost $5K or more to make, after adding in labor and a profit. It might fly if built by the Chinese, but how many could they sell, 100 at most?  ;D

I don't think anybody would intentionally waste all that time with Leo, go thru the trouble of securing the parts suppliers, building, testing, etc just to have a failure and screw people. It was a venture that went broke and took some people with it, basically.

Even highly mass produced Asian riceboxes cost thousands. Imagine trying to build one of those in the USA.

The best way is to homebrew your own. Since we almost never get our time and money back out of a hobby project, might as well do it up right and go for the gusto. If nobody wants it after you die, have your heirs send it to the landfill or eBay the parts.

T

If they called that rig something other then a 500D and did not try to pass it off as a King, He might have sold a few more. Looks like good intentions, Big iron, SS PS and audio input ect.