There have been times when as a ham I have needed things for the shack. As I look online and see the options out there and the cost I have my frugal within me kick in. I have had this internal argument in the past and it has worked out and saved me money other times it has cost me money. To be honest most of the time it has cost me money.
What am I referring too you ask..let me give you some examples. At one time I needed a coax switch and there was the Alpha Delta and the other ones. The price point was almost 1/2 and I decided to go with the non-Alpha Delta brand. Bad move as in short order I started to have issues with the coax switch and ended up spilling the beans for the Alpha Delta. As a side note, the Alpha Delta was fantastic and NEVER an issue.
Then there was the mobile antenna mount and I ended up getting the Larson and also a Diamond mount after a failed cheaper mount. Then the bargin power supply which was noisy and garbage was replaced with an Astron supply and I have never looked back. The cheap snap-on toroid chokes were replaced with quality toroids.
I have learned my lesson over time and know that the pain of spending a bit more removes the larger pain when you have to spend again but I have to admit it took a few purchases for me to see the big picture. As a side note the brands that I mentioned are not by any means the only quality products just the products I purchased to replace the mistakes that I bought.
2 comments:
Absolutely agree Mike! Especially with antenna switches. I have bought a few mid-range switches which are advertised and stocked by the big ham-stores here in the UK, but found them to be of very, very poor quality.
After experiencing high-swr issues, I opened up the switch to find that for one thing, the three SO-239's were a PUSH FIT into the aluminium casing!!! A push fit! So obviously, with the twisting motion of tightening your PL plugs, the SO-239 will eventually rotate and the connection to earth becomes iffy.
Worse still(!) I found that the switch wafer was incredibly poorly soldered and was an accident waiting to happen.
I now pay Cross Country Wireless here in the UK for my switches and not only are they superbly constructed, but also have about 60dB isolation between the outputs (another weak point in cheaper switches).
Whinge over, LOL.
Hope you're well.
73, Tom, M7MCQ
www.m7mcq.com
Good morning Tom and thanks for stopping by, I have been there and done that and as you lesson learned. As I look back now there were times I tried to save a penny on an a radio item. But if it failed may have cooked a radio that was worth thousands.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
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