[Boatanchors] Johnson Matchbox 275W

[Rob Atkinson]

The complaint reviews are always from hams who want to buy one single
matching network and have it do _everything_ better than anything else.
This is one sign of a completely non-technical ham.   Another whiny
complaint is the "limited matching range."   They don't want to have to
alter the feedline length or they want it to match the 2 m. 19 inch vertical
on 80 m.   What they don't realize is, it is not really a good thing to have
a tuner that will match anything because all that does is hide the fact that
the ham has a junk antenna.   Usually if a match can't be had, something is
wrong, but not with the tuner.  Usually the antenna is too small, or too
low, ...something like that is wrong and needs to be fixed i.e., the tuner
is telling you something you need to know, rather than masking it with 50
ohms to heat and a 5 ohm antenna.

The one complaint I sort of go along with is that it doesn't cover 160, but
I only go along with that just a bit.  The reason is most hams can't really
put up a horizontal wire antenna on 160 that is high enough to work well,
and are therefore better off with an unbalanced antenna like an inverted L
and radials.  So in a way EFJ was doing everyone a favor there too, the
message being forget about our tuner and a dipole on 160 m.; use a vertical
and homebrew L network and save the Matchbox for dipoles on 80 m. on up.

73

Rob
K5UJ



On Thu, Jul 28, 2011 at 9:33 PM, Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>wrote:

>
>
>      The reviews are interesting. Some say its the best and
> they use it all the time, some have the typical reaction to
> anything old, "This used to be good but isn't any more. It
> won't do...etc, etc."  Well, the laws of physics have not
> changed and if it was good in the past its still good. You
> just have to learn to use it correctly. We live in a world
> of equipment that does not require any technical skill to
> use; it does everything automatically (maybe). Of course,
> hams are supposed to be able to set up and maintain
> communications with very simple equipment in emergencies.
> Having a corps of those with technical knowledge and skill
> to establish communication in an emergency is the whole
> justification for amateur radio to exist and be allocated
> band space. I think some of the rice-box radios are very
> good but they don't teach the owners much other than that
> one can have too many settings in a computer menu.
>    I also think the above is a good justification to know
> Morse. Even if you are slow it provides a method of
> communication that works with the simplest possible
> equipment.
>    Pardon my soap box, sometimes I just can't help it.
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
>
>
>