[TowerTalk] Yagi gain vs rotary dipole.

[Jim Thomson]

Ok, forget FB and FS for this exercise.   Has anybody actually measured the gain of a yagi vs something like a rotary dipole.... at the same height ? 
A lot of  yagi vs dipole comparisons are not done right.... since the dipole is usually not at right angles to the desired signal.   ideally, it would be
nice to have 2 identical  height towers..... or at least mount a yagi on 1 tower..and say a  full size dipole... made from AL tubing..on another tower..at the same height. 
And with towers side by side..not behind each other etc.   And equal lengths of coax. 

has anybody done anything remotely like this ?  Is your 3 el 20m yagi 5 db louder than the dipole ?    Or another case is a small yagi and a bigger one...like a 3 el  vs 5-6 el. What do u see between
them... 2 to 2.5 db ??     Or do u see a lot bigger differences ??   I mean....if a 2 el yagi is only 4db gain..that’s only 2/3 of an S unit.  Im looking at this from a sig strength perspective only, NOT  F/B  or F/S.   2db with the bigger yagi hardly seems worth it on paper...if it actually is 2db.  Switch in a 2db pad on RX and u will see what I mean. 

A buddy back in the 70s had 2 x 100 ft towers up....side by side and  250 ft apart.  equal length feedlines.   tribander on tower1  and a hb 6 el 20m yagi on the other.  We could not tell the difference between em, while switching...listening to EU short path.... night after night.  he was not impressed.  F/B and F/S on the monobander was better..and pattern was narrower, but that was about it.    We tried it on strong and weak signals..and also with rf gain backed way off etc. 

Jim   VE7RF