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[TowerTalk] Short Tower Antenna

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Subject: [TowerTalk] Short Tower Antenna
From: jreisert@jlc.net (Joe Reisert)
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 16:41:57 -0500
Hi Rick,

Let's not forget that the receive signal improves too with increased 
antenna gain usually because the pattern is narrower and therefore, noise 
pickup is decreaed. I had a drastic improvement here on 6-meters recently 
when I put up second antenna with about 3 dB more gain. There are times 
when the signals are buried in the noise on the smaller antenna and easily 
copied on the higher gain antenna yet the DX station notices only a slight 
difference in signal strength between them!

Likewise, when you are in competition, every dB helps to make you just a 
little bit stronger. If other stations are all running the same power as 
you are (especially if all at the legal limit!), all things being equal, 
the higher gain antenna will give a slight edge. Contesters have know this 
for a long time.

A dB here and a dB there and soon, as you pointed out, it really starts to 
make a difference! W8JI has really shown this lately as he improves his 
antennas on 160 a dB or so at a time.

73,

Joe, W1JR


At 08:49 AM 1/28/2002 -0800, Richard Karlquist wrote:

>That's interesting about what Tom told you.  I
>remember him giving a talk at Pacificon a few
>years ago where he said 2 dB makes a huge difference
>in a contest.
>
>The other thing to consider is that if you lose 1 dB
>due to antenna compromises, 1 dB due to feedline
>losses, 2 dB due to not having a legal limit amp,
>etc, etc,; pretty soon you have 5 or 10 dB and we
>know that does make a difference.  The question isn't
>whether 1 dB is noticeable; rather it should be
>"is this the easiest place to pickup up an extra dB?".
>
>Rick N6RK
>
> > 2 element yagi. How much of a compromise ? A whopping .5 db.
> > Will you notice
> > the difference on the air ? I seriously doubt it. I spoke  to Tom @ force
> > 12about discernable on air differences between antennas with
> > respect to gain.
> > They have a C3SS set up with a C-19 on their antenna range. The
> > antennas are so
> > close that little or no difference is perceived. There is about a 1 db
> > difference between these antennas. How much gain does it take to
> > notice the
> > difference? How low is your noise floor? How good is the rest of
> >
>
>
>________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________
Where do you get ICE bandpass filters & beverage matching boxes?  The
same place that pays for the hosting of this list:  The eHam Store.
Order online at http://store.eham.net.
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