"Roy Lewallen" wrote
The reason for my rather grumpy comment at the end is that I've
recommended countless times for many years that people interested in
evaluating antennas build a simple step attenuator -- an evening
project.

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Roy, to cheer you up, many years back I made one in a diecast
Eddystone box. The last decade was in 0.001 dB steps. It was intended
only up to 5 MHz.

It was used to determine the attenuation/temperature coefficients of
oceanic, submarine coaxial cables, 26 miles long, in tanks at the
cable factory. Temperature was changed by dumping a ton of ice into
the tank, obtained from Billingsgate, London, fish market. I think the
fish market is still in Billingsgate but the attenuator has long since
disappeared. Perhaps the knobs still exist somewhere. Very sad!
----
Reg.