In message , John Smith
writes
On 9/15/2010 4:51 AM, Cecil Moore wrote:

...
That depends on the signal to noise ratio. If the signal to noise
ratio remains the same while 50% of one's signal is lost, the dynamic
range of a low-noise HF receiver usually makes up for it. Witness the
Beverage antenna where 99% receive power loss is tolerated: (from
Wikipedia)

"While Beverage antennas have excellent directivity, because they are
close to lossy earth they do not produce absolute gain (typically -20
to -10 dBi). This is rarely a problem, because the antenna is used at
frequencies where there are high levels of atmospheric radio noise."
--
73, Cecil, w5dxp.com

Cecil,

If a mere loss of 10% drops you too close to the sensitivity threshold
of your receiver, your ability to pull out a weak signal just suffered
the kiss of death ... 100w on a kw might not even be noticed on the
other end ...

As a Windom is only likely to be used on the HF bands (and probably
mainly on the lower HF bands), I would have thought that a few dB of
attenuation would have negligible effect on the SNR.
--
Ian