On Mon,7/25/2016 11:37 AM, Kevin - K4VD wrote:
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.
Absolutely right.
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.
And sometimes that "low loss" is a fiction.
The better antenna is the one that can hear the signal you are after better than the other you are testing against.
And also that the other station hears you better. The difference is efficiency (loss) in the antenna system, which generally does not matter on RX, but does matter on transmit.
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.
Yep.
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.
Yep. 73, Jim K9YC ______________________________________________________________ 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]
