On Sun, 16 Nov 1997 01:05:08 +0000 bob puharic <wf3h@enter.net> writes:
> I've
>clobbered my share of pileups with it. I've had stations in Africa
>tell me I was
>the only station they could hear, or had a G3 tell me I was so loud
>that I
>'scared him half to death'. I ran a phone patch for the USCG/USAF
>when NO other
>station listening could get through.
We have all had experiences like these. They are very memorable
data points that tend to put a positive bias on the user's opinion
of the antenna he is currently using.
I thought the world of my closely-spaced 10, 15 and 20 monobanders,
until another ham moved into my neighborhood and put up a Wilson
System 36 Tribander at the same height. We did a LOT of on-the-air
comparisons with other stations, and I kept an accurate record of
all the differences in s-meter readings. After the true statistics
emerged, I came to the conclusion that my little stack was
suffering from fatal interaction, and replaced it with a big
tribander. The difference was immediately reflected in my improved
contest scores. In the world of statistics, there is no substitute
for a large sample size of measurements to zero in on the true
nature of the item being evaluated.
Some day we may have accurate, believable (a la Consumer Reports)
quantitative performance measurements available on all different
antennas, but in the meantime statistical evaluation will have to
suffice. You just have to remember the nature of statistics, and not
be biased by individual high or low readings.
Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
K6LL@juno.com
Yuma, AZ
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