Chuck
Having used both at a number of stations, I can speak with some
experience here.
The biggest virtue I have found of an 8 Circle array is the ability to
put a bothersome
station or noise in a null. Most of the time, you can hear a station in
the 4-square beamed
direction as well on the 4-square as on the 8 Circle. You might even be
able to put
a bothersome station or noise in a null with the 4-square, but now he
doesn't hear you either.
The 8 Circle allows you to steer the null and maybe find a spot where
the SNR is better,
and I've found both as valuable as the direction of maximum gain.
So, yes, you can hear things on an 8 Circle that you might not hear on a
4-square, but to
me its more a question of nulls (of both other signals and noise) rather
than a stronger
signal.
Dennis W1UE
On 10/16/2017 2:26 PM, Chuck Dietz wrote:
I was always told that, if one had a 4 square, there would be no need for a
receive array. I am finding this to be untrue when looking at the list of
RDFs. (Receive Directivity Factor) I have snooped through the archives
reading about RDF.
Can anyone verify this from actual experience? Can you actually hear stuff
on an 8 Circle that can't be heard on the transmit 4 square? I would think
the difference might be more than marginal with the difference in RDFs of
2.48 db. I'm not sure of the difference in takeoff angles. That could be
important too.
As a practical matter, the 8 Circle is huge and expensive for a single
band antenna...
Chuck W5PR
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