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All great advice. And even 1.5 dB can be the difference.
73, Jim K9YC
On 1/27/2022 9:19 AM, VE6WZ_Steve wrote:
 
Be aware that the gain and F/B of the array is very sensitive to parasitic loss.
Ground loss will quickly diminish the current in the parasitic and the gain 
will crash.
It’s easy to model this.  Just include a series resistance in the parasitic 
element and watch the gain and F/B drop.
Field measuring the gain with on air tests can be difficult.  With only 3 or 4 
dB forward gain compared to the single vertical, it can be very hard to 
measure.  Even using RBN reports, QSB can easily mask this small change.
However, 3 dB is, well…..3dB and it's like doubling your TX power.  For the 
really weak QSOs, when your signal is just bubbling around the noise, that 3dB can 
make the QSO.
I recommend you read about my tuning method. It is not a trivial process to 
tune the parasitic to match the model.
 
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