Agreed fully. But the very low output antennas usually go hand in hand with small suburban or non rural environs and thus very noisy. To achieve a useful sn ratio with all the noise and low output is a big challenge especially if you are not in the lower latitudes. I note n4is comments from noisy FL lot BUT there is a huge diff in propagation and sig levels from there to NY area. U keep believing more and more that an additional factor for good rx conditions is also wide open terrain and not only because those are typically quiet. During a recent area wide power blackout here for 5 days it was very quiet but still could t hear many things others less than 100 miles were hearing in far more open land. I think it's because arrival angles are so low obstructions will degrade levels.
I have no issues on 80 and higher. Hear what everyone else does but 160 is a major major challenge on rx. Sent from my iPhone On Nov 30, 2011, at 5:08 PM, wb6r...@mac.com wrote: > I've used a variety of loops, from a small rotatable coax diamond to my > present receiving antenna, a large 14 x 29 ft flag. > It is more useful to think of these antennas as providing directivity, not > gain. What's important is a relative improvement in signal to noise ratio. It > is not unusual to have improved copy on the desired signal while the loop is > pointed at other than a dead on heading. > > 73 - Steve WB6RSE > _______________________________________________ > UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK _______________________________________________ UR RST IS ... ... ..9 QSB QSB - hw? BK