[TowerTalk] New antenna?

[Michael Tope]

Yeah, I went back and looked at the copy of the report I have, the 
forward gain of the TA33 was only 1 to 2.5 dB down from the TH7 
depending on the band and frequency within the band. I agree that you'd 
be hard pressed to discern that small a difference between HF antennas 
on receive especially with the constant fading.

Even if you were transmitting, it would be hard to tell if one antenna 
had an edge. Until recently, I had been using a 500 watt solid-state amp 
to operate HF contests with my remote station. On those occasions when I 
would physically go to the remote station, I would switch in a 1500 watt 
manually tuned tube amp to get whatever edge you get from an extra ~5dB 
of ERP.

While I am sure the extra power helps at the margin, in either case I 
could still make hundreds or even thousands of QSOs. It is really hard 
to tell when someone can't hear you how much additional ERP would get 
you above their noise level or how much your QSO rate would increase 
when CQing if you increased power by X dB.

73, Mike W4EF...............



On 3/30/2026 8:32 PM, David Gilbert via TowerTalk wrote:
>
> "Nothing scientific" Exactly. Receive is a pretty bad way to compare 
> gain unless you did so with instrumentation. Signal to noise is how we 
> usually judge signal strength by ear, and if the gain is less so will 
> be the noise. I can hear a LOT of stations on antennas that are so bad 
> on transmit that nobody would be able to hear me. Your "slightly less" 
> could easily be several dB, and "not bad for an old design" is hardly 
> a recommendation when better designs are available. Dave AB7E
> On 3/30/2026 6:30 PM, Doug Renwick via TowerTalk wrote:
>> Mosley bashing is never ending.
>> So I had to see for myself.
>> I was given a Mosley TA33 tribander. It is certainly well built.
>> I mounted it at 50 ft pointed towards Europe.
>> I also have a TH7DX at 50 ft that I can point in the same direction.
>> I did a few receive signal comparisons. Nothing scientific but it 
>> gave me a rough idea how the TA33 performs. Generally equal to or 
>> slightly less than the TH7DX.
>> My conclusion is the TA33 is not that bad as some claim and not bad 
>> for an old design.
>>
>> Doug/VA5DX
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf 
>> Of Joe Subich, W4TV via TowerTalk
>> Sent: March 30, 2026 5:46 PM
>> To:towertalk at contesting.com
>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] New antenna?
>>
>>
>> On 2026-03-30 7:18 PM, Peter Voelpel via TowerTalk wrote:
>>> Then how comes that they are always providing same or better signal
>>> strength then other tribanders?
>> They are not, as proven by proper range testing.
>>
>> My first tribander (50 years ago next year) was a Mosley TA36 ... I
>> quickly replaced it with a set of Hy-Gain antennas (204BA, 155BA,
>> 105BA) and never looked back.  Comparatively, the Mosley was a lead
>> (HEAVY) dummy load and a set of dipoles performed as well.
>>
>> 73,
>>
>>      ... Joe, W4TV
>>
>>
>> On 2026-03-30 7:18 PM, Peter Voelpel via TowerTalk wrote:
>>> Then how comes that they are always providing same or better signal 
>>> strength
>>> then other tribanders?
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf 
>>> Of Jim
>>> Brown via TowerTalk
>>> Sent: Dienstag, 31. März 2026 00:41
>>> To:towertalk at contesting.com
>>> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] New antenna?
>>>
>>> On 3/30/2026 3:16 PM, Gary Smith wrote:
>>>> Suggest you get catalog from Mosley and consider one of their 
>>>> monobanders
>>> if you don’t want traps.
>>>
>>> Monobanders are a great idea IF you have the real estate to rig them.
>>> Moseley's big tribander came in dead last in the testing that N0AX and
>>> K7LXC did in 1999. It even had negative gain (dBd -- with respect to a
>>> dipole) on 15 and 10M, only 0.7 dB on 20M.
>>>
>>> 73, Jim K9YC
>>>
>>
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