Ken - You are absolutely right, and I totally agree that there needs to be something to compare to in order to evaluate performance in a meaningful way. My mistake was in assuming that my judgment, after 50 + years of doing this, would be accepted without laying out all the details, especially when combined with actual on-air performance (during times of less favorable propagation).
So let me add to my prior post that I have spent a great deal of time with different "simple wire antennas" including inverted-V, sloper, end-fed, G5RV and yes ... several different "true" dipoles. Some single band, some resonant, some not, some with traps. And a few verticals with traps, base loading, center loading and top loading. And one three element tri-bander at about 55 feet. I am basing my opinion of this current EDZ on my experiences with those. That being said, I do not currently have any of those in place in order to facilitate an actual A/B test under exact same conditions. Nor do I plan to go to the cost or trouble to do so in order to satisfy the 5% of me that thinks it might be meaningful. 73 Lyn, W0LEN -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of K8TE Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2020 9:57 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Matching resonant antennas Lyn, How do you measure your antenna's performance? In many cases, not necessarily yours, antenna performance seems to be based on countries worked, achieving WAS/DXCC, "It's way better than last year's antenna.", or "I worked Pitcarin Island last week." None of these "measures" are meaningful. I am a big proponent of having a half-wave dipole as one's "standard" antenna then using the RBN, WSPRLite, etc. to capture same-time data on the performance of each antenna over time. In other words, to say one's antenna works, is meaningless. To say it works well is also meaningless. To say it works better than...can have some value and perhaps even meaning. 73, Bill, K8TE ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
