It was a ghost town at work on Friday. Most employees that could work remotely from home, did so. It seemed besides the very few employees who actually did show up were IT (that included me), the kitchen staff and Security.
I spent the first part of the day catching up on chores that I have been putting off. We're in the opening stages of a big refresh project. Employees with older laptops are being upgraded to current models with more RAM, longer life batteries and faster processors. I have been so busy shipping laptops, that I have not been able to open the older ones that have been returned. I took care of the backlog in the morning.
In the afternoon, I tidied up my space and got as much done as I could in advance of next week, considering that it's a short week due to the Labor Day holiday, here in the US. I had to be there until 5:00 PM and I had nothing to do for the last 20 or so minutes of the day, I opened the latest version of QST and started perusing.
What struck me was the price of vertical antennas these day! If something ever happened to my HF9V, I doubt I could replace it. I would in most likelihood have to resort to wire antennas only.
In order to duplicate the capabilities that I currently have, as per DX Engineering:
A new Butternut HF9V would cost $825 - I think I paid in the $400 to $500 range when I purchased mine.
A Hy-Gain AV-680 goes for $770.
A Cushcraft R9 is going for $800 and cannot be ground mounted - that would be a bugaboo for me.
A DX Commander Signature 9 is going for $500
A Diamond BB7V is going for $423 - not too terrible.
A Hustler 6BTV looks most promising, if it came to it - going for $298
MFJ makes several inexpensive options, but MFJ is MFJ. I love my MFJ-1982LP, but I had to correct some faulty soldering in the UNUN. That makes me slightly wary about other items in their inventory.
Bottom line is that I could never afford to replace my Butternut HF9V with another of the same, unless I started buying lottery tickets, It came as somewhat of a shock.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
Good morning Larry, funny thing I was doing the same thing last week. I found my Huslter 4BTV that I purchased a year ago has gone up 80% here in Canada!!! That is crazy and as you said in your post if something were to happen I would be hard pressed to replace it.
ReplyDelete73,
Mike
VE9KK
Hey Larry, I've recently been looking at sourcing a really good vertical which can be ground-mounted but OMG, I just couldn't believe the prices!! You could buy a very good transceiver for less. I appreciate that you're paying for someone's design work and not just a bunch of aluminium tubes, but hell fire :-0
ReplyDelete73, Tom, M7MCQ
www.m7mcq.com
I can't afford any "heavy metal" antenna. Beam or vertical. They are even more expensive this side of the pond. Fortunately, my Par EF20 is holding up and I have two unused Pars in the box should they become necessary. Even decent copper wire is very pricy. The "do more with less" is no longer a nice philosophy but a reality for many. Fortunately, there are QRP rigs, modestly priced with modest capability, for amateurs whose disposable income is also modest. Zip-cord wire antennas do reflect rf. And, cw rules. 73 de Dick F8WBD.
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