Topband: It works or doesn't work

[Tom Rauch]

-I thought I should put this on as a clarification.

The fact something does not work as described or does not
work optimally doesn't mean something won't work at all.

Edison, through cut-and-try experiments, made many things
work. The Edisonian method works with antennas too, it's
just that understanding how things really work gives us an
edge that often helps us make things work a little better a
little faster. There is little point in deluding ourselves
with magic. Odds of being successful are better if we start
a project or experiment with a reasonable foundation, and of
course we probably all agree our odds of success are zero if
we don't try anything...and that we would all have zero
countries without using some type of antenna. (Ohh, wait. I
forgot about the DX cluster. Make that odds are less without
any antenna at all, but not zero.)

An antenna that is -20dBi gain will still let us work an
infinite amount more DX than not having any antenna at all!
Read the words carefully, and don't read anything more into
the words than what the words actually say.

73 Tom