[TowerTalk] TowerTalk Digest, Vol 231, Issue 13

[Jim Brown]

On 3/19/2022 4:48 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
> I'm really surprised to keep seeing that comment these days, when 
> everyone should by now know that antennas are more or less reciprocal 
> for transmit and receive.  The average ham on the other end is most 
> likely running similar rigs and similar power to your 150 watts, and 
> that means that signals should be roughly the same either way no matter 
> how good or how bad your antenna is.  If you're using a good antenna 
> that hears well you are almost certainly putting out a decent signal 
> with it.  If you're using a poor antenna that doesn't transmit well, it 
> just means you aren't hearing a lot of stations you'd be able to work if 
> you had a better antenna.
> 
> This stuff is pretty basic ....

Yeah, but there's an elephant in the room that you're leaving out of 
your analysis -- it's the RF noise that surrounds virtually all of us, 
both from trash generators in our own homes and those of our neighbors! 
Any ham who hasn't gone through the work to purge at least his/her own 
home of those noise sources is RF deaf! And even after finishing that 
task, is likely still deafened by neighbors' trash.

Indeed,  the principal benefit of directional antennas and serious 
chokes at antenna feedpoints is to reject as much of that noise as possible!

73, Jim K9YC