No, Rick is correct. And how many countries you have confirmed
doesn't really mean anything other than you have worked (a lot of) DX.
The "no. of countries," "I can work anyone I hear," "the current
antenna is better than the ones I've had before therefore it must be
excellent," and so on, are all ways we deceive ourselves about
antennas.
A few truths I've learned from others, and revelations I've had:
If you put enough power into anything it will radiate and you'll have
QSOs so to find out what you really have, reduce your power to 5 watts
CW or 50 watts AM and somewhere in between for SSB, and operate at
that level, not for a few hours but for a few months. Evaluations
take time.
You can't get around the laws of physics. A poor antenna is a poor
antenna and a tuner can't make it a good one. This seems obvious, but
many hams want what they consider a good tuner, which they define as
one that does everything they need to have done, because it has an
extremely wide impedance range. What they are actually asking for is
a black box band-aid. An antenna with an extremely low Z, just a few
ohms let's say, is going to be a poor antenna. A tuner won't change
that. It might keep them warm in winter though, if the inductor
doesn't melt down. Various types of loading (possible exception--top
capacitance loading), magic mystery antennas that claim to work well
from 1.8 to 30 MHz, are attempts at changing the laws of physics.
Mother Nature does not bend her rules. If a ham can accept that, and
live by the laws, he is immediately ahead of everyone out there
running Gaps, Isotrons, multi-band OCFdipoles, 43 ft. verticals, etc.
etc.
Height has to be thought of in terms of wavelength on the band of
interest. 35 feet okay on 20, but not on 160. Would you operate
with a dipole 4 feet high on 20 meters? Surprisingly, many hams with
dipoles 30 feet high on 160 do not comprehend this.
Some things work better than other things but that doesn't always mean
they are good, or excellent.
Certain circumstantial factors can elevate a particular antenna's
performance, or make it seem good (propagation condx, being near salt
water, having an elevated QTH...) when it really isn't all that good
generally.
Some poor antennas are good if set up right, on one particular band,
but are lousy on most bands.
Some work okay or seem to, because the operator's choice of mode,
power level, operating activity, or routine time of day of operation.
A poor antenna on 75 may work okay in the daytime because there is no
skywave QRM and high angle daytime lower absorption favor cloud
burners. Loaded mobile antennas may seem to work in a CW contest on
10 m. when the ham is running 200 w. and working hit and pounce but he
would learn differently if he tried to use one for a long phone QSO at
night on 75 meters. These coincidental factors lead to a lot of
self-deception.
There is a wide gray area in which an antenna can seem to be sort of
okay. Most factors affecting performance are on a sliding
scale--performance is not an all or nothing case, except when
something breaks. Because of this, it can take an experience using a
really good antenna, or even a simple dipole but full sized and up 120
feet on 80 m. in order for the scales to fall from one's eyes and
realize his horizontal loop at 30 feet isn't the super antenna he
thought it was.
Truly good antennas often involve some work and expense (it seems like
getting above 50 feet is when costs start to mount), unless you are
lucky enough to have tall mature solid trees spaced conveniently apart
to allow pulling up a 1/2 w. center fed dipole to 100 feet for 80
meters. Or you reside where the wind never blows so you can use
balloons : ) You pretty much get out of antenna work what you can put
into it in terms of time, effort and money. But there's always
someone willing to make money selling a free lunch, get out of jail
card something for nothing antenna to hams who can figure out a way to
make it seem okay for themselves.
73
Rob
K5UJ
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