EMI Antennas - Why so Flippin' Expensive?

[John C. Dillon]

Anyone in this industry care to justify the outragous price
of "calibrated" antennas ? I have need for an antenna to
measure radiated emmissions of a Part 15 49 MHz transmitter.
Seems that I'm expected to pay $2,000.00 or more for a dipole
and balun "set". This thing has $20 worth (maybe) of material.
Is it the "calibration" that costs $1980.00? If I build 25
of these myself, and am very sloppy in my workmanship, I would
see maybe 1 dB difference from one to another. With reasonable
care in construction, these antennas should be like peas in a pod.
Why, then, are they so damn expensive? Seems to me that here is
a market worth investigating! Where can I find info on building
these things? Perhaps I'm underestimating the real value of these
devices. I really am trying to remain open minded...

John jdi...@acsworld.net

[Anthony R. Gold]

In article <32065...@newsmail.acsworld.net>

jdi...@acsworld.net "John C. Dillon" writes:

> Anyone in this industry care to justify the outragous price
> of "calibrated" antennas ? I have need for an antenna to
> measure radiated emmissions of a Part 15 49 MHz transmitter.
> Seems that I'm expected to pay $2,000.00 or more for a dipole
> and balun "set". This thing has $20 worth (maybe) of material.

And a further $1,000 of liability insurance? These are trying times
we live in, as our lawyer/legislators have made sure.

Regards,
--
Tony - G3SKR / AA2PM email: tg...@panix.com
tg...@microvst.demon.co.uk
packet: g3skr@n0ary.#nocal.ca.usa.na

[LBRTY4US]

In article <839354...@tgold.dialup.access.net>, "Anthony R. Gold"
<tg...@tgold.dialup.access.net> writes:

>And a further $1,000 of liability insurance?

Underwriter's premium per unit shipped? Doubt it. (Or, I start writing
G.L. coverage for antenna mfg's....)

[Tom Sharples]

>In article <32065...@newsmail.acsworld.net>
> jdi...@acsworld.net "John C. Dillon" writes:
>
>> Anyone in this industry care to justify the outragous price
>> of "calibrated" antennas ? I have need for an antenna to
>> measure radiated emmissions of a Part 15 49 MHz transmitter.
>> Seems that I'm expected to pay $2,000.00 or more for a dipole
>> and balun "set". This thing has $20 worth (maybe) of material.
>

Try AVCOM, they have an LP antenna for about $600, or Com-Power, they have
a complete setup at a fairly reasonable price, compared to EMCO or the
other ridiculously expensive guys.

[Booth, Thomas G]

In article <32065...@newsmail.acsworld.net>, jdi...@acsworld.net (John

C. Dillon) wrote:
>
> Anyone in this industry care to justify the outragous price
> of "calibrated" antennas ? I have need for an antenna to
> measure radiated emmissions of a Part 15 49 MHz transmitter.
> Seems that I'm expected to pay $2,000.00 or more for a dipole
> and balun "set". This thing has $20 worth (maybe) of material.

> Is it the "calibration" that costs $1980.00? If I build 25
> of these myself, and am very sloppy in my workmanship, I would
> see maybe 1 dB difference from one to another. With reasonable
> care in construction, these antennas should be like peas in a pod.
> Why, then, are they so damn expensive? Seems to me that here is
> a market worth investigating! Where can I find info on building
> these things? Perhaps I'm underestimating the real value of these
> devices. I really am trying to remain open minded...
>
> John jdi...@acsworld.net

Well, the money gets spent in the special tape measure (marked as a
function of frequency) needed to adjust the length of the two dipoles used
below 400 MHz (g). BTW, the "special tape measure" does exist, at least
for the dipole sets I've used.

As far as the cost of the dipole antenna set, sure, part of the cost is
calibration, part of the cost is assembly labor, part of the cost is
distributor markup, part of the cost is marketing, part of the cost is
"legal eagle" support, and so on. If material costs are the prime
criteria, then we should be outraged at paying $60,000+ for an HP8566B
spectrum analyzer because it doesn't have anywhere near $60,000 in
materials, or refuse to pay $400 for a TV set which has only a few dollars
worth of parts inside.

Manufacturers of EMI antennas are stuck w/ a rather small specialized
market which AFAIK isn't a big growth area and where equipment turnover
tends to be slow (I know of several EMI labs which still use 1960s-vintage
antennas). To some extent these manufacturers have to increase their unit
prices because there's no other way to recoup their fixed costs (I was
going to say something about Kathie Lee's sweatshop at this point, but I
chickened out - cluck, cluck). There is also perhaps a "what the market
will bear" factor built into the antenna price...after all $2000 is not a
large percentage of the total cost of setting up a proper EMI test lab.

Which brings me to my last point. Is the test you're planning intended to
simply characterize the radiated emissions on a pre-production/prototype
item, or is the test going to be the one which demonstrates compliance? If
it's the former, and you're choking on the cost of a new antenna set, I'd
recommend that you get in touch w/ a firm like Tucker, RAG, etc. & see if
you can rent/lease what you need for less money. If it's the latter, I
sure hope you've done your homework on the proper test methods, have all
the necessary test equipment and have a facility which would pass muster w/
the FCC; if not, your time & money will better spent by engaging the
services of a competent, NVLAP-approved EMI test lab.

TGB

\\ The opinions expressed herein are my own. //

[LBRTY4US]

In article <sharples-0708961524080001@news>, shar...@tscan.com (Tom
Sharples) writes:

>>> Anyone in this industry care to justify the outragous price
>>> of "calibrated" antennas ? I have need for an antenna to
>>> measure radiated emmissions of a Part 15 49 MHz transmitter.
>>> Seems that I'm expected to pay $2,000.00 or more for a dipole
>>> and balun "set". This thing has $20 worth (maybe) of material.
>>

>Try AVCOM, they have an LP antenna for about $600, or Com-Power, they
have
>a complete setup at a fairly reasonable price, compared to EMCO or the
>other ridiculously expensive guys.

I got some private email, which I tried to fwd here but didn't work, from
someone who pointed out that real EMI ants need to be individually
calibrated, and data supplied, for reliabiliy industry & FCC measurement
standards. This COULD be expensive; I would like to see more specific
info from a knowledgeable source about what calibation actually costs, as
well as future periodicity of same. EMCO might just hae a reason for
their fat prices, or at least we might see what part of the price
represents calibration.