Excellent test. Wonderful testing equipment!
I had a Larrys LW-150 and I received different results, more along the lines of boring standard antenna theory, as the Hy-Gain .64 Penetrator outperformed the LW-150 at ~45miles by 1.5 S-units both RX & TX, due, I believe, to the lower take-off angle of radiation.
Same radios, Yaesu FT-107M for SSB, and a Johnson Messenger 223 for AM, (with it's commercial piece of test equipment-like meter & circuit) same coax, mast, etc.
What surprised me was the receive being lower than that of the Penetrator. I expected at least better RX due to the LW-150 being about 5 feet taller, but it seemed to follow the radiation angle of the TX, and dropped considerably in comparison to the Penetrator, especially at greater distances. The greater the distance the more the Penetrator excelled.
I absolutely loved the construction of the LW-150 but had to let it go, reluctantly, due to it being a poorer performer in comparison to the Hy-Gain Penetrator.
I was under no pressure to sell it, and adored the forged aluminum cylinders which joined each section to the next, plus the weight being that of TWO Penetrators / I-10Ks attesting to the exceptionally high-quality construction, etc., but what good would an inferior performer of an antenna do for me?
Last I heard it's now living in Boise, Idaho along with my old, beloved, White Yaesu FT-107M, a radio I truly miss.
I have also talked with others who have replaced their 3/4 wave whatever antenna with a .64 (Penetrator / Sigma5/8 / Wilson Apha / I-10k, etc.) and have seen improvement, especially over greater distances.
One local radio op switched from the MacoV-5/8 to the 4000 then back to the Maco because he said they performed the same but he didn't like the light-duty construction of the 4000. WOW, and he thought that tissue-paper-weight Maco was better built?? Eeeek! No wonder the 4000s are losing their 'heads'! (top elements)
I'll wager just the radials from the Penetrator outweigh the entire MacoV-5/8
The swr was less than 1.2:1 on each antenna I tested, and built/assembled 'by-the-book'.
The Penetrator has one issue for some, the ground shunt part of the match has often been assembled incorrectly and attached to the wrong side, thus causing some slight degradation in performance. It's easy to do if you have Slisdexia like eM, or don't pay attention to the diagram & pictures, which might account for your apparent sub-level performance.
Still, excellent test, I like to hear about those, especially when so much care is taken to keep it fair!
73
