Hi Rick,
Let's not forget that the receive signal improves too with increased
antenna gain usually because the pattern is narrower and therefore, noise
pickup is decreaed. I had a drastic improvement here on 6-meters recently
when I put up second antenna with about 3 dB more gain. There are times
when the signals are buried in the noise on the smaller antenna and easily
copied on the higher gain antenna yet the DX station notices only a slight
difference in signal strength between them!
Likewise, when you are in competition, every dB helps to make you just a
little bit stronger. If other stations are all running the same power as
you are (especially if all at the legal limit!), all things being equal,
the higher gain antenna will give a slight edge. Contesters have know this
for a long time.
A dB here and a dB there and soon, as you pointed out, it really starts to
make a difference! W8JI has really shown this lately as he improves his
antennas on 160 a dB or so at a time.
73,
Joe, W1JR
At 08:49 AM 1/28/2002 -0800, Richard Karlquist wrote:
>That's interesting about what Tom told you. I
>remember him giving a talk at Pacificon a few
>years ago where he said 2 dB makes a huge difference
>in a contest.
>
>The other thing to consider is that if you lose 1 dB
>due to antenna compromises, 1 dB due to feedline
>losses, 2 dB due to not having a legal limit amp,
>etc, etc,; pretty soon you have 5 or 10 dB and we
>know that does make a difference. The question isn't
>whether 1 dB is noticeable; rather it should be
>"is this the easiest place to pickup up an extra dB?".
>
>Rick N6RK
>
> > 2 element yagi. How much of a compromise ? A whopping .5 db.
> > Will you notice
> > the difference on the air ? I seriously doubt it. I spoke to Tom @ force
> > 12about discernable on air differences between antennas with
> > respect to gain.
> > They have a C3SS set up with a C-19 on their antenna range. The
> > antennas are so
> > close that little or no difference is perceived. There is about a 1 db
> > difference between these antennas. How much gain does it take to
> > notice the
> > difference? How low is your noise floor? How good is the rest of
> >
>
>
>________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________
Where do you get ICE bandpass filters & beverage matching boxes? The
same place that pays for the hosting of this list: The eHam Store.
Order online at http://store.eham.net.
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