Dr. DX, I think you misunderstood what I meant. I didn't say full wavelength, I said full length antennas as opposed to the two receiving antennas I mentioned that are completely loaded. All CB antennas have the same gain in TX as RX. Things like a lower noise floor may give the effect of better reception or a poor match can make the antenna perform poorly on TX. My point was the gain is the same in both modes with a correctly matched antenna.
With respect to the trombone versus the gamma match, it really just depends on what the matching requirements of the antenna are to determine what one to use. The 5/8 wave has a high end fed impedance and needs some inductance to match it to 50 ohms. The Sigma is longer and needs capacitance to cancel it's inductive component. One isn't more efficient then the other here, it just has different uses.
From an electrical and gain standpoint there are no differences between the V-58 or the I-10K. The only real difference is the shape and size of the inductor used. This makes a difference in terms of how much power the antenna can handle however, I would argue even the smallest coil matching network used on the Penetrator does not have enough loss to show less gain then the expensive I-10K. All well designed 5/8 waves have about 1.2 dbd.
CDX is showing more gain on the Penetrator then the I-10K. I'm not sure how this much difference is possible because we are talking as much as 12 db. By having the other station broadside to your antennas you may have minimized any directional effects of the two antennas but having them in the same plane at 1/2 wave separation will cause them to interact even as a parasitic element not driven.
It would be interesting to see what happened if the Penetrator were removed. Would the weaker I-10K improve it's signal in the absence of the second antenna? Another way to test for this interaction would be to look for a station in the opposite direction to determine if the I-10K is benefiting in that direction from the Penetrator being there.
If I were you and had the two of these up like that I would be driving them both and experimenting with different phasing sections of coax to steer the signal in the desired direction. AM stations do this and I think it's possible to do much more then just a co phased broadside pattern by feeding one antenna at a different phase angle through different lengths of cable.
With respect to the trombone versus the gamma match, it really just depends on what the matching requirements of the antenna are to determine what one to use. The 5/8 wave has a high end fed impedance and needs some inductance to match it to 50 ohms. The Sigma is longer and needs capacitance to cancel it's inductive component. One isn't more efficient then the other here, it just has different uses.
From an electrical and gain standpoint there are no differences between the V-58 or the I-10K. The only real difference is the shape and size of the inductor used. This makes a difference in terms of how much power the antenna can handle however, I would argue even the smallest coil matching network used on the Penetrator does not have enough loss to show less gain then the expensive I-10K. All well designed 5/8 waves have about 1.2 dbd.
CDX is showing more gain on the Penetrator then the I-10K. I'm not sure how this much difference is possible because we are talking as much as 12 db. By having the other station broadside to your antennas you may have minimized any directional effects of the two antennas but having them in the same plane at 1/2 wave separation will cause them to interact even as a parasitic element not driven.
It would be interesting to see what happened if the Penetrator were removed. Would the weaker I-10K improve it's signal in the absence of the second antenna? Another way to test for this interaction would be to look for a station in the opposite direction to determine if the I-10K is benefiting in that direction from the Penetrator being there.
If I were you and had the two of these up like that I would be driving them both and experimenting with different phasing sections of coax to steer the signal in the desired direction. AM stations do this and I think it's possible to do much more then just a co phased broadside pattern by feeding one antenna at a different phase angle through different lengths of cable.
