[TenTec] Capture area (was 80 meter loops)

[Sinisa Hristov]

jsb at digistar.com wrote:

> So is a halfwavelength dipole a preferable antenna than a endfed halfwave
> for a given band?  How does an endfed fullwave or 3/2 wave antenna compare
> to 1/2 wave endfed vs dipole?


It is necessary and sufficient to compare these and other antennas
by comparing their [more or less] realistically
computed radiation patterns, as related to the job at hand.

It's a budgeting problem:  there is a fixed amount of
average gain [same for any antenna] and any increase in favoured directions
is paid by corresponding decrease in all the other directions.

In some cases a highly directional ("high gain") antenna may be desirable,
but if various directions have to be worked without rotating
the antenna, then a less directive antenna may provide stronger
signal in non-preferred directions.

In other words, a beam can have some "gain" over dipole
for some narrow azimuth and elevation ranges,
but for all the other directions it's the dipole
providing the "gain" over the beam, and this gain is
as real and as effective as any other.


73,

Sinisa  YT1NT, VA3TTN