Topband: Question abt gain in bi- vs uni-directional Beverage

[Fritz Reuning]

I've got 2 - 160M "Beverage's" (they're only abt 1/4 wavelength long).  In
the Dec 160 contest the noise was abt s9 with my inv L and s1 or 2 with the
terminated Beverages (NE and West from Southwest VA).
Recently I was having a discussion with a friend abt adding switches at the
terminating resistor in order to switch from uni- to bi-directional.  He
asked why I just didn't make them bi-directional & forget abt having to add
a switch.  When I answered that the uni-directional had more gain (e.g. in
the NE direction) than when it was bi-directional, he said he didn't think
that was the case, or at least the additional gain was only marginal.  My
thot is that the gain is significant.  I've done some reading and can't find
anything
at by level that suggests yes or no to whether there is more gain.

If the answer is that there is no appreciable additional gain with the
uni-directional Beverage, then why does it seem that everyone makes their
Beverage's uni-directional.  From my contesting viewpoint, the 
more I hear (excluding noise!) the better.

Please enlighten me regarding the gain question, as well as, why I need
uni-directional Beverage's in a contest.  Also, if I we were talking 1 or 2
wavelength Beverage's, would the answers be any different?

Many tks,

Fritz K4OAQ
k4oaq@mindspring.com


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