I beg to differ.

The i stands for isotropic, which means it radiates perfectly in all
directions. Not "an isotropic force."

The discone is omnidirection in the azimuth. It is not omnidirectional
in elevation. It obtains its gain by having better lobes up to about 60
degrees (depends on the design and the frequency within the range) of
elevation.

The difference is important when you're working satellites.

Paying attention to the elevation lobes is also important when you are
trying to work DX on HF.

A 1/2 wave dipole (which exhibits directionality broadside with reduced
coverage off the ends) has a gain of 2.15 dBi. People DO pay attention
to the orientation of their dipoles. So 2 some odd dBi is a bit better
than a "wet noodle."

Would a yagi work better? It depends. Yes it has better gain &
front-to-back ratio AT A GIVEN FREQUENCY. But no yagi is going to give
the frequency coverage that a discone (of equivalent design) has.

The DEC said that we were going to be using MURS to support the local
CERT teams. No problem with the discone. People with yagis, j-poles and
1/4 wave whips are all going to need to mount another antenna.

As I said. It depends on what you think is "better."

-Donald

Rikki wrote:

The ARRL handbook list the gain of a discone as 2 dbi. The i stands
for isotropic force. Therefore the dbgain is 2 db over an imaginary
force. The discone antenna is an omni directional antenna and
therefore really doesn't have any gain. In order for a antenna to have
a "true db gain" it has to be directional. It's more or less a
gimmick. If you stuck a wet noodle in your antenna connector it would
have a 2 dbi gain..


"Donald K" wrote in message
...

ARRL Antenna Book lists gain of a discone as 2 dBi.


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