[Antennas] W3EDP antenna

[Robert Wilder]

At 03:08 PM 5/18/2002 -0600, Chris Adams wrote:

>I would agree with that, antennas are not amplifiers, the most power that can
>come out of them is what is put in.  Getting gain in a specified direction
>requires losing it in another.  If you don't wish to call it "gain" I'm
>certainly not going to argue the semantics of the issue.
>

I think that the use of the term "Gain" leads a lot of people into 
believing that you can get more out
than you put in.  I have often wondered why the term "Gain" was used.  I 
would think that it would
be better to state the characteristics of an antenna in terms of it 
effective radiated power which
could be converted to dB and expressed as gain.  A good example of what I 
am referring to is
the "gain" of a slot antenna used on the old AN/FRC-47 (Think that is the 
number).  It had an
output of 22KW at 300KHz but an ERP close to 1 Megawatt.  When using term 
"Gain" I would
like to it stated something like..."Gain of 6dB at 45 degrees from the end 
of the antenna" etc.


Bob Wilder, AF2HD/AFA2HD
6032 Idlemoore Court
Theodore, AL 36582-4036
251-653-5274
http://home.earthlink.net/~bwild