[VHFcontesting] HELP! Looking for stacking info on 1.2GHZ yagis

[Ev Tupis]

Hi Joe,
I can see how this can be confusing.  I'm going to take a non-technical whack at it for you.

Let's assume that your antennas use flat elements (planar).  When looking at the end (down the boom), they look like this: -o-

If you stack one-above-the-other...
-o-
-o-
...then your azimuth pattern (left-right) remains unchanged, while your elevation pattern (up-down) gets "squished" or "compressed".  This is good for terrestrial work because it keeps most RF at the horizon, while making it no more difficult to "zero-in" on other stations than if you were to use a single antenna.

If you stack side-by-side...
-o-  -o-
...then your azimuth pattern (lef-right) gets "squished" or "compressed" while your elevation pattern (up-down) remains unchanged.  The net result is that you must be more accurate when pointing your antennas at other terrestrial participants.

Either way, you get "squish" since that is the only way to aim more RF in your favored direction.

Kind regards,
Ev, W2EV