Hi Rick

I personally have tried to give meaningful signal reports over the years
but given the tools I have my options are pretty limited. The only real
useful report for a remote station is to compare them to someone nearby
to where they are, then add and subtract some maths based on differences
in power and supposed antenna gain.

You can of course also make judgments based on other signals you hear on
the band. Not real accurate though.

Then you have the problem of allowing for antenna vs optimum take off
angles when it comes to making gain assertions. Where you hang an
antenna will never be the same environment as where the manufacturer
tested theirs..

My 1c

Bob VK2YQA

Rick wrote:
Sometimes on the HF bands you will hear a conversation that goes something
like this:

Bob Bob wrote in
:

angles when it comes to making gain assertions. Where you hang an
antenna will never be the same environment as where the manufacturer
tested theirs..

Quite an assumption Bob, that manufacturers perform meaningful tests on
their antennas and quote 3D gain.

Whilst there are no doubt some reputable antenna manufacturers, there are
plenty that resemble snake oil salesmen.

Not that it was a salesman, but I read the article describing the little
2.4GHz 2el quad, and the author (who also has a VK1 call, so must be an RF
neighbour of mine) noted that the noise increased when he pointed it at the
Sun, implying it was sufficiently sensitive to hear Sun noise. In
disbelief, I ran the numbers, and he would be more than 160dB shy of
reliably detecting sun noise... so there was some other explanation for his
observation.

Owen