Comments on: TH3MK4 & A3S versus 204 BA

By: George

George — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:02:13 +0000

It would be interesting to do side by side comparison or measurement of the antennas to see if those numbers really hold up but I will suggest that instead of looking at the forward gain of the antennas you look at the F/B ratios of the antennas. This HF radio game is all about hearing and to hear well you need to manage the noise. At HF the pattern is more important than the forward gain. It is all about noise management. You will never hear 1 or 2 or even 3 or more of forward gain in an antenna but 5 or 10 or more of Noise rejection is very important. As an example a beverage receiving antenna has negative gain over a dipole but can have a great pattern and that makes a world of difference.

By: John VE8EV

John VE8EV — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:47:01 +0000

Wayne you’re so right. I just went through the same exercise and came to exactly the same conclusion. Why spend 9dB more dollars for a gigantic antenna, beefy rotator and heavy duty tower just to get an imperceptible 1dB of gain (or less!) over the little tribander?

By: 2M0XAT ROSS

2M0XAT ROSS — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:06:13 +0000

I like your way of thinking. Yes its always nice to improve your set up but somtimes i think too many people just like talking about how big there antenna is (you know what they say about people with big antennas). Cheers Ross 2M0XAT. P.S. i really enjoyed the QSO the other day.

By: N6DCN

N6DCN — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:56:14 +0000

Agree with you on that Wayne. There is no magic wand