Rather, they
continue to debate, ad nauseum and without any meaningful data, whether
one antenna is better than the other, or at best quote differences in
"S-units" read from their meters, without the foggiest idea how many dB
it might represent or how different it is from someone else's meter (or
from the same meter on a different band or a different part of the
scale). The conclusion I've reached is that A) Hams would much rather
argue than actually determine the facts, or B) The vast majority are
unable to build a homebrew project consisting of slide switches,
circuit
board material, and resistors. I'm afraid both are probably true.
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In my case, I suppose I could build one. I am capable. But the honest
truth is I really don't care exactly how many DB's a certain antenna is
vs
another when testing on the air. Or how many DB's my S meter reads.
All I care about is which is better. A or B. The ionosphere will skew
any
measurements, so to me, not much point. Now, if I were testing
antennas against each other on a antenna testing range, I wouldn't be
without one.
As an example, if I were to measure the DB increase of a GP vs dipole
on 40m, the difference would increase as the path got farther and
farther.
I wouldn't really be measuring the antennas per say, I'd be measuring
the overall big picture including the propogation effects. So I don't
see
much need to put an exact number on it. As long as I can tell which is
better, I'm a happy camper. I'd use the attenuator when doing fine
comparions of antennas in a controlled envionement. IE: good for
measuring the gain of a homebrew 2m yagi, vs a dipole, etc in a
space wave envionment.
When quoting S meter readings, I never try to equate those with
any numerical gain.. It's just a relative method of seeing which one
is best.
MK