On 5/8/2011 10:22 AM, Tom Rutherford wrote:
wrote in message
...
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=...20meter%20halo

Myself I'd probably stick a small 3 el yagi on that
lamp mast if you had room..
Good bit more punch for SSB, and being things are
reciprocal, it will improve reception. If you squeeze
an extra 6 db from the antenna system, that's like
taking 50 watts and turning it to 200.
Best deal on an "amp" you will find..
I'm not sure the gain using a halo, but I suspect
it's probably pretty close to a dipole. Maybe a tad
more, but it's not going to be a drastic difference.
A loop has some gain broadside vs a dipole, but I'm
not sure what you get running one on it's side.

Thanks much. I'll have a look at that link and see what's what. The Yagi
would be nice, but running out on the balcony and moving it around all the
time isn't practical. That's why I wanted something fairly omnidirectional,
as much of "omni" as I can get, anyway. Since I remember what my
communications instructor told us about loops (they radiate equally poorly
in all directionsg), I figured this would be the most practical solution
for what I want to do.



A horizontal dipole in front of a screen or single reflector would have
a "pattern" that is 100+ degrees wide.

Stack a couple vertically, say a meter apart, and you squeeze the
vertical beam width significantly, which is probably what you want.

What you *might* want to do is look for a low gain TV antenna for the
upper VHF bands (e.g. Channel 7-13): one of those two bay things with a
bowtie in front of a screen.