W4AN suggested:
> With all respect.... I would get some side by side comparisons with
> locals. I do this all of the time if I dont have another antenna to
> compare against. You might be surprised. Maybe not.
Thanks for the tip Bill. I'll give it a try. I think the biggest
factor limiting such comparisons is the terrain. I'm on a decent
ridge that may have a pronounced enough effect to make any antenna
comparisons somewhat questionable. That of course, would also make
questionable any contest score coparisons.
K0EJ probably has the best setup (locally) available to really compare
antennas. Two towers, 10' difference in height, spaced only 40' apart.
Now if we could just get a bunch of antennas, a crew, and time to run
a bunch of local and DX tests, we could probably have some real data
to work with... Start with two *identical* antennas first, to
calibrate the setup...
The more comparisons the better. N4ZZ and I compare antennas
frequently on the low bands. Guess I'll have to coax more of
the TCG folks in to doing some high band comparisons.
Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy my contesting & operating, and take all
the info and hype with a healthy grain of salt. I run 9 year old radios
too, and don't feel like I'm missing out on too much as a result.
That's partly the beauty of it. No top to the mountain. Always room
for improvement, no matter what. CU in the contests!
-Kirk K4RO
-- Tennessee Contest Group --
http://www.k4ro.net/tcg.html
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