Unfortunately, specmanship is a well honed art in most advertising.
The recent Cushcraft claim of 13.5 dBi must surely include the ground
reflection gain. This can lead to further obfuscations, particularly if
references are cited relative to a dipole whose impedance and gain
fluctuate with height.
The least confusing gain indicator is free space gain in dBi.
Hopefully, this will become the standard of comparison for gain.
There still seems to be some disagreement about the losses
incurred in traps and loading coils but monobanders or multi-
band antennas with full size unloaded elements are well modeled.
de Tom N4KG
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