One issue with VHF is that you want the signal to travel horizontally, not vertically. The more energy you can direct at the horizon and the less at the sky, the more effective your radio becomes. The higher gain antennas change the signal pattern from a dome to more of a pancake pattern. The right antenna can make 5 watts on a duckie sound like 1000 watts to a distant station. The same benefits apply on the receive end as well. A telescoping whip isn't necessairly going to provide a noticible improvement over a rubber duckie. You'd have to set the length using an SWR meter and then it will only be marginally better then a 1/4 wave RD and probably no where as good as a 5/8 duckie. BTW, I have talked to Europe using 0.5 watts... but the antenna was 66 feet wide and 88 feet long... cya Bob Denton Vice President Undersea Breathing Systems bob_at_dnax.com http://www.dnax.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Mar 04 1998 - 09:50:37 PST
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