Responding to N5IA's observation about the prohibitive cost of measurement
equipment: I haven't bought any broadcast grade field strength meters
lately, but I don't think amateurs really need that quality level anyway.
It would be nice to know the actual field strength at a given point, power
level, etc. However, hams are not trying to meet FCC's pattern prediction
requirement; we're just trying to optimize our signals within our means.
I think that we can do quite well with very simple equipment which can
measure comparative signal strength. If you can get to a point outside the
near field, and stick a pipe in the ground with a simple detector of some
sort on the pipe, a few feet of antenna above it, and a meter or meter
jacks somewhere on it, you would then have all that's needed for
comparative measurements. If you then go add a radial and see if the FS
went up, that's what you wanted to know. Or if you want to put the radial
at ten feet, and then at ground level, you can measure which is better, and
how much better it was. The on the air comparisons are easy and we all do
that, but they're still not as good as FS measurements. And simple
equipment is all you need.
We all know that station x may very well have a better location than
station y. We may or may not know why. But if we are station x, what we
are trying to do is to have the best FS our means allows, AT STATION X.
And the only way to know if we have done that is to measure the FS, even if
our precision is not very good. If station y still beats us, that's the
breaks.
73
Larry, N9DX
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