At 07:49 AM 1/13/03 -0500, Zyg Skrobanski wrote:
>A 3DB beamwidth curtain, depending on the antenna location, can cover quite
>a chunk of Europe. I don't think a contest station would be handicapped,
>in that regard, by using such an antenna system. These arrays can also
>slew the beam as much as +/- 30°, for the elusive DX. Of course for the
>complete super contest set up you would need separate curtains for Asia,
>South America etc.
>
>On the other hand, one could use the curtain array just as a receive
>antenna - great F/B and side-to-side ratios!;)
Yes, and 21+ dB (including ground reflection) is hard to come by any other
way. I was thinking more in terms of a contester making the choice
between, say, 16 dBi from a long-boom yagi versus the same gain from a
stack. The stack would not only have a wider azimuth beamwidth but also a
wider elevation beamwidth. Whether this extra width is "useful" is much
harder to test, or to prove...
73, Pete N4ZR
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