I think SWR is not a good indication of which antenna is better. As Wes mentioned, a 50 ohm dummy load has a near perfect match and is about the worse possible antenna.
A dipole fed with 600 ohm ladder line provides a terrible match before the BALUN (and sometimes after) but generally is a fine performer because of the low loss. The better antenna is the one that can hear the signal you are after better than the other you are testing against. And then only for that signal, in that direction, at that time of day, on that band and with that particular propagation mode in play. I think this is why you find some of the happiest hams are the ones that have enough land for enough antennas to switch between them as the need arises. Kev / K4VD ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
