On January 19, 2009 at 00:52, Ernie Bornn-Gilman said...
I call this elitist in that the vast majority of television
viewers who would benefit from this antenna simply will
not be able to do so. It is either too expensive for
them, needing custom one-off construction, or beyond their
talents to construct.
Much of the history of radio includes the work of individuals who tinkered and discovered ways to improve the technology out of their personal interest rather than from commercial motivation. In many respects this ethos is at the core of amateur radio. People like Nicola Tesla and Edwin Armstrong, for instance, made enormous contributions that are absolutely key to broadcasting today, even though both were terrible businessmen.
But what about the other 99.99% of the OTA viewing population?
How is something being given back to society by this
being kept away from commercialization, and not even spoken
of openly by giving direct forum references?
Goodness... there's nothing secret about this. I learned about this antenna design through a web search, and tinkered around trying to reduce it to something my stations' viewers could assemble with ordinary parts by following straightforward directions. I gladly included my own work in the same public domain licensing, and the result is what Hogger linked to several posts above. The whole point is to give anyone both the means and the legal right to use a very workable design without worrying about infringing on some company's patent rights.
Regards,
