On Sun, 12 May 2013 20:36:26 -0400, "Ralph Mowery"
wrote:

I was thinking there was a mobile antenna system that
you mounted two antennas and had a switch box that phased them for differant
directions. Don't believe it worked too well as the antennas were usually
too close together.

Chuckle. That's because the co-phasing harness combiner would produce
a giant null in the fore and aft directions. The box had a 3 position
switch, that selected antenna 1, 2, or both. The problem was that
there was no way to use a real Wilkinson splitter with the switch, so
the both position was simply both antennas in parallel. That didn't
work.

The the base station 'scanner' antenna was devoloped
using 3 verticals in a triangle patern several feet apart. Seemed to work
ok for what it was.

It's still being sold and it actually works fairly well. It's just a
VHF/UHF version of an HF "fan" antenna, where each band has its own
dipole. Well, for the scanner antenna, a monopole.

The stranger looking the antenna, the better is works (and sells).

During that period of time, I think Antenna Specialists' made up much of the
CB antenna sales.

Yep. I wasn't involved in antenna design at the time, but I did meet
with some of the designers. The RF part of the design was minimal.
The aesthetics, cosmetics, packaging, and sales pitch were the major
considerations.

Only double the power,, many of the ones I knew ran 50 to 100 watts in the
mobiles back in the 70's.

It started with doubling the power, again for good reason caused by
the power divider. Radios had such features on the schematic as
"Don't short this resistor or you will transmit at illegal power
levels". That would usually get the typical 23 channel CB up to about
12 watts in. Linears came later.

Incidentally, in about 1979, I worked on a marine 2-30MHz HF SSB
transmitter. The 150 watt power amplifier was my design. Sales of
"replacement" power amplifiers were rather high until management found
out what the dealers were doing with them. Oh well.

During those years you could sell almost
anything to the CB. Much like for the last number of years you can sell to
the audio/hifi people. Best scam I know of is the wire going from the hifi
to the wall socket. For about $ 120 you get 6 to 8 feet of 'special wire'
Even if it was special that would not account for the wire going from the
outlet to the breaker box and then to th epole transformer..

Got $10,000?
http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM
There probably should be a law against this, but on the other hand,
the purchase of such an overpriced cable is probably its own
punishment.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558