See if you can spot the problem with the following

[W3WN]

That "gold standard SWR device" looks like a big resister with screw terminals hidden inside of a big heat sink.

There was some company, in the neighborhood of 20 years ago, who was marketing a magic antenna with a secret box that you hooked the wires to. Someone (was this in QST or 73?) who finally reviewed it took the secret box apart, cleaned out all the gunk heat sink material around the central component, and discovered... a big 50 ohm resistor bank. So of course the antenna always presented a 1:1 SWR, all the radio saw was the resistors.

After the review was published, if memory serves, the magic antenna and the company marketing it quickly disappeared.

[KJ3N]

That "gold standard SWR device" looks like a big resister with screw terminals hidden inside of a big heat sink.

Give that man a cigar.... and a kewpie doll! We have a winnah!!

[N8YX]

Sonny Irons' old company offered the Max-Comm. Was touted as manna by people who should have known better and/or didn't have access to a network analyzer.

[XE1/N5AL]

He'd tuned up the radio and forgotten to take it off the dummy load before checking into the net.

And the dummy load he was using that night, or so he said? A 100 W light bulb.

I'd swap out that 100 W bulb for a 300 W monster, to get a: 10 log (300W / 100W) = 4.8 dB SIGNAL BOOST!!!!
And to insure top station efficiency, I'd "go green" with an energy saving CFL or LED bulb! Yup!

[K4PIH]

I remember looking at thise Isotron antennas and thinking if I got anough parts and pieces and starting putting them together I would eventually come up with a design that worked, to a degree. Same principle as putting 1 000 000 chimps in a room with typwriters and sooner or later getting the constitution.

isotronantenna.jpg