[Antennas] "fingerstock" -- Is it really 'dangerous' ?

[A10382]

Hey guys and gals,

Thanks for all the input on 'fingerstock'.
I've now got a good feel for it and am definitely over any
'fingerstock-phobia' I might have had.

Despite spending a few years working side-by-side with some marketing types
(the antithesis of engineering), I seemingly forgot that marketing will take
even the slimmest perceived 'advantage' and turn it into a major advertising
campaign.

The best advice seems to be
1) Avoid grinding or cutting anything with beryllium or any other 'heavy'
metals (do it outdoors -or- let the manufacturer or a metal shop do that!)
2) Tune up a screwdriver or other device with fingerstock contacts or
shielding at low power and then stop tuning before launching into normal
power settings.  This would certainly make me look for a controller that had
a tune lockout so the antenna would not retune itself at normal power
settings.

My current setup is a 100W (variable 5-100W) base rig and a very manual
Drake tuner.  The rig TPO is variable, starting just under 5W keydown.
Other than tune-up at 5 or 10W, I rarely run over 30-35W - despite my rig
being capable of 100W.  The rig's built in power meter reads a bit low
compared with two different external meters..

-------

I did have a 600W amp quite a few years ago, which was about the max I could
run on a 15amp house circuit.  The problem seemed to be that if I needed
more than 100W (I don't believe I ever put more than 300W using the amp -
50W in gave just about 300W out) to reach out, I usually had difficulty
hearing the reply -- so off it went to a local club station who did have the
very tall towers & yagis to make better use of it.  Someone had opened it to
check it out before putting it in use and noted that there was no
discoloration, arcing, or even any burnt spots that might have come from
running at near max.  That was before many of the amp makers were purchased
by the same company - who had now 'cost reduced' the product lines to the
point that they no longer can tolerate running at max output.
Unfortunately, this seems to becoming a common practice - keeps the bean
counters happy but must drive their engineers absolutely bonkers.

73, Frank
 ._._.

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