Which is a big problem. Too many hams spend a ton of money on radios and accessories and then connect them to crappy antennas. The result, a nice looking station that is PW.
I built my present antenna system in 1981-83. At the time the brand new tower, hardware, concrete and copper wire for the ground radials cost me a total of about $1600. That was about the same price as a top-of-the-line transceiver appliance of the day. My previous antenna had been a dipole about 25' high, fed with open wire, strung between trees.
I could have spent the $1600 for the radio, and still would have had a mediocre signal at best using the old antenna. What would I have to show for it to-day? A mediocre signal from a JS antenna strung between trees and an obsolete, 28 yrs-old transceiver worth practically nothing on the used market, even if it still worked with no crapped out unobtainable replacement proprietary component.
Instead, I chose the antenna, and kept the homebrew transmitter built from stuff scrounged from flea markets, dumptsters, estate sales, etc. that nobody else wanted and thought was worthless junk. Once the antenna was completed, I was able to generate a signal that dominates all of N. America using that transmitter. Now, nearly 30 years later, I still use the same transmitter and antenna, and still put out a dominant signal all over N. America;
ain't a slopbucket anywhere that can bother me.
I think the antenna was by far the better investment.
Don. What is the antenna?
