How can we explain this experience while comparing two different antennas?
For some few weeks now I have been comparing an A99 at 35’ without a GPK and a Wolf .64 ground plane at about 30’. I check and record signals of various stations around me locally using a switch box. My radio does not respond well to signal differences when the signals get above S7, so I use my RF gain to bring a particular signal down in the range of S3 where the meter reflects small changes better when switching between the antennas under test. I just record the differences only between my two antennas to a particular station. The particular value of signals from different stations recorded on my report are not important to the outcome, it is the differences I find between my two antennas on switching that I look for. It is not a perfect procedure, but I think it gives a pretty fair indication of differences most of the time. The gist so far between these two antennas is that there is very little difference in signals noted, meaning almost zero difference as best I can detect. Thus far without being consistent this is also true when DX is working, with maybe a slight advantage using the Wolf.
Last Sunday night I was scanning the CB band and heard a familiar voice. A buddy (WJ) about 6 miles north of me was talking. He was just talking to a friend of his named Marvin. I learned during their conversation that Marvin was a bit farther and to the south of me maybe 13 or more miles away. This placed me somewhere between them. I was on my A99 and was seeing an S9+ signal on WJ so I tuned the RF gain down on his signal to S3, but Marvin’s signal went down to zero. I raised the gain on Marvin back up to S3 and then I was getting a steady S5 on WJ. I switched over to the Wolf while WJ was talking and I saw a very big jump up to S9 maybe more from him. When Marvin started talking I also noted a healthy increase to S7 on him using the Wolf. I switched back to the A99 and the signals went back to the original readings. I was amazed since for weeks I had been seeing no or very modest differences doing the same thing all over my local area. While I continued to listen in amazement, wondering why, WJ mentioned that he was on his 5 element flat side yagi. Marvin confirmed that he too was on his flat side antenna when a neighbor popped up and told us that he could hardly hear either WJ or Marvin and wanted to know what was going on. It became obvious to me immediately that both WJ and Marvin switched back to a vertical as both their signals began to read the same to me when switching between my A99 and the Wolf. So, the difference was the response of the Wolf to horizontal signals when compared to the A99.
Since both my antennas are vertical what allowed the horizontal response with the Wolf that much greater than the A99 in this scenario?
In the past I have also seen similar response differences when comparing other verticals to an AstroPlane.
Considering that all of my previous unrecorded DX reports showed me little or no differences between these two antennas, what could account for this using the Wolf .64 ground plane?
For some few weeks now I have been comparing an A99 at 35’ without a GPK and a Wolf .64 ground plane at about 30’. I check and record signals of various stations around me locally using a switch box. My radio does not respond well to signal differences when the signals get above S7, so I use my RF gain to bring a particular signal down in the range of S3 where the meter reflects small changes better when switching between the antennas under test. I just record the differences only between my two antennas to a particular station. The particular value of signals from different stations recorded on my report are not important to the outcome, it is the differences I find between my two antennas on switching that I look for. It is not a perfect procedure, but I think it gives a pretty fair indication of differences most of the time. The gist so far between these two antennas is that there is very little difference in signals noted, meaning almost zero difference as best I can detect. Thus far without being consistent this is also true when DX is working, with maybe a slight advantage using the Wolf.
Last Sunday night I was scanning the CB band and heard a familiar voice. A buddy (WJ) about 6 miles north of me was talking. He was just talking to a friend of his named Marvin. I learned during their conversation that Marvin was a bit farther and to the south of me maybe 13 or more miles away. This placed me somewhere between them. I was on my A99 and was seeing an S9+ signal on WJ so I tuned the RF gain down on his signal to S3, but Marvin’s signal went down to zero. I raised the gain on Marvin back up to S3 and then I was getting a steady S5 on WJ. I switched over to the Wolf while WJ was talking and I saw a very big jump up to S9 maybe more from him. When Marvin started talking I also noted a healthy increase to S7 on him using the Wolf. I switched back to the A99 and the signals went back to the original readings. I was amazed since for weeks I had been seeing no or very modest differences doing the same thing all over my local area. While I continued to listen in amazement, wondering why, WJ mentioned that he was on his 5 element flat side yagi. Marvin confirmed that he too was on his flat side antenna when a neighbor popped up and told us that he could hardly hear either WJ or Marvin and wanted to know what was going on. It became obvious to me immediately that both WJ and Marvin switched back to a vertical as both their signals began to read the same to me when switching between my A99 and the Wolf. So, the difference was the response of the Wolf to horizontal signals when compared to the A99.
Since both my antennas are vertical what allowed the horizontal response with the Wolf that much greater than the A99 in this scenario?
In the past I have also seen similar response differences when comparing other verticals to an AstroPlane.
Considering that all of my previous unrecorded DX reports showed me little or no differences between these two antennas, what could account for this using the Wolf .64 ground plane?
