In Pursuit of Immaculate Reception

Thought for the day:  Two antennas fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was exceptional.

[THEME: Amateur radio]

Unless you're talking about packing on a passel of pounds before your weekly weigh-in at the Overeaters Anonymous meeting, the word GAIN generally has a positive connotation. When talking about antennas, the word refers to its directionality, as compared to another antenna, like a dipole. (a very basic antenna consisting of center-fed wire or tubing)

In simplest terms, when it comes to antennas, size does matter, and bigger is generally better. The larger the antenna, the higher the gain, and the higher the gain, the better you can send and receive signals in a specific direction.

At left is a simple wire dipole, center-fed with ladder line. The closer the length of the wire is to a full wave length of the desired frequency, the higher the gain. Therefore, a 1/2 or 5/8 wavelength antenna will outperform a 1/4 wave one.

One of the most popular high gain antennas used by amateur radio operators all over the world is the Yagi, or beam. See the three parallel elements? The one in the center is the driven element, and it's actually a dipole. The longer element to the left is the reflector, and the shorter one to the right is the director. By using a rotor to turn the antenna, the signal can be directed in the direction of the director. (Try saying THAT fast three times!)

Adding additional directors to a Yagi increases its gain. That's why the antennas used for such things as moonbounce and direction finding have so many elements. Same for cell tower, and TV antennas.

So to amateur radio operators, GAIN is a very good thing. (Don't even bring up that nasty word loss.)

     Oooh, such fuzzy reception! I think that guy needs a higher gain antenna.