Hmmm......Flew (fleed)to my local avionics shop at Hanscom AFB today to
pick up my WX500 antenna, the balance of the system will be in next
week. At the same time I ordered a Ryan 9900B TCAD to connect to the
MX20 in my panel, so far so good!

I asked my local avionics guru to give me a price for the Ryan TCAD
9900B, less the two antennas. He called Ryan and the price for the
system, less antennas, resulted in a $1,440.00 savings to me, so far so
good.

Upon arrival back home, there's a message on the machine from some dude
at Ryan!! I called him back, thinking it was someone responding to my
email request for literature, but no, he was calling to say that if I
wanted to purchase their 9900B, I would need to purchase their antennas
as well. I explained to him in excruciating detail that I already had my
antennas and did not need to buy two more (imagine pounding your head
against a brick wall, blood and brain tissue splattered everywhere!).

He explained that their concerns were twofold. 1. That if their black
box was not connected to THEIR antennas, they could not guarantee
performance. A feeble excuse at best, but for 1400 bucks, I'll take that
risk. Now here is where is gets bizzare...he bagan to mumble something
about patent protection and if they sold me the 9900B without antennas,
it could have some negative effect on their ability to protect their
patent.

At this point, my eyes were fully glazed over and all I could think of
doing was to get to the frig for a Corona ASAP.

Is it possible that one of you have a solution to this problem?

By the way, take some adhesive backed 80 grit sandpaper and apply it to
an EMPTY Corona beer bottle and you have the perfect tool for creating
the radius between the HS and VS.

Angier Ames