[Mobile-Portable] New car and considering new antenna setup!

[Art Clemons]

> 
> I have also compared my signal using the Comet with another ham just a few
> hundred yards away who was using a screw driver and guess what, the distant
> station reported that I was 2 S points stronger (that's 12 dB).


But most receivers are not really calibrated accurately enough for 2 S 
Units to mean anything repeatedly.  That's one of the problems.  The 
same point on a scale on the same band may be the same signal level 
every single time, but and it's a key but, an S Unit may be 1 dB or 20 
dB.  2 dB could be almost anything, there is no 6 dB.  I've faded in and 
out while running mobile in as little as 50 yards, and heard the same 
thing with other mobiles.  That's one of the reasons I emphasized same 
power on the same vehicle from the same location and repeating without 
the vagaries of propagation to interfere.  I for example can hear a 
station on 40 meters that someone 2 blocks away can't hear with a very 
similar antenna.  You'll note I mentioned the use of an attenuator to do 
my test, that's the only reliable way to measure differences repeatedly 
without a calibrated receiver.

You're proud of your results, but it's unclear just how the results came 
about.  Was it locale, or was it antenna.  Further, is your audio better 
than the other stations, or any of several other variables I can think of.

You'll also note that the shootouts previously mentioned by me involved 
folks out of the near field of the antennas but close enough so that 
propagation played no part.  One other point to consider is that many 
mobile hams like to operate on 40 meters or 75 meters, and your 
comet/diamond is in no way competitive.  I realize that XYLs, garage 
roofs or just a desire for "good looks" might rule against a screwdriver 
or bugcatcher, but one is then stuck with an even more compromised 
mobile antenna.