Carbon Fiber Masts - Good or Bad?

[VA3KOT John]

I have never used a carbon fibre mast but logic suggests the effects would be negligible. I have erected an antenna in trees hundreds of times and trees are electrically conductive. Why worry about perfection in an antenna? Every antenna is a compromise in way or another. The object of raising an antenna is to make contacts. If the antenna is slightly lossy it doesn't matter. It takes a loss of 6dB just to lose one S-unit. Is it really important if you get a signal report of 58 instead of 59? (That is assuming the common ham mistake of reporting the S-meter reading as the "S" in an RST signal report - it isn't! See: http://www.radioing.com/hamstart/rst.html)