Antenna Shootout

[mjthomas59]

Not sure if anyone here has seen this before, but it appears that everyone and their brother wants to know which antenna is best. I stumbled across this the other day and figured it was worthy of a post:

http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/antenna.html

It has a pretty decent comparison of the handheld antenna choices available and which bands they work the best on!

Enjoy

 

[k9rzz]

Do you think he gets paid to do that? What a great job that would be, eh??

jw
k9rzz

 

[mjthomas59]

Not sure if he gets paid, although it does state on the article that he isn't paid by any antenna company. That would be a pretty nice job to have, although if you actually wanted a scientific test done, it might lose some of its appeal.

 

[Mischief810]

There is a lot of good information on that page. He obviously spent a good bit of money and time developing it. However, his results are completely subjective. No one could duplicate his results, because no one else has his "well trained and calibrated ears."

The reception of a weak station is affected by many factors in addition to the antenna being used on the receiver. Atmospheric conditions are a factor, as are obstructions (in L.O.S. propagation). The only way to control for those factors is to sample a measured value, repeatedly, over a relatively long period of time.

 

[DPD1]

I kind of wish people would leave 'reviewing' to the pros. There's no way to get fair results in such an uncontrolled environment. And people that don't know any better are going to take it seriously. I guess it's fine if you're lucky and your product happens to get positive comments. Getting negative comments can potentially do undeserved damage though. People forget that there are real people behind businesses... People that have to make a living like everybody else. It's kind of like if I walked into somebody's job, watched them for 5 minutes, then issued a report on how good of an employee they are. How the heck would I know? I don't think many people would appreciate being criticized is such a flagrant manor.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
- Custom Scanner, Aviation, MURS, GMRS, Marine & Ham Antennas -

 

[fmulder13]

A similar testing was done on mobile antennas, as shown here

http://www.northwestradio.com/interceptnw/antennas.htm

 

[mjthomas59]

I think you guys are missing the point. The person doing the testing clearly states that this isn't scientific. As far as reviewing a product, i don't really know any other way than by simply trying it out and seeing how well it works. Sure there are 1000's of variables and all this other nonsense, too bad no one else has even bothered to do those scientific experiments to show which antennas are good and which ones are bad. We all don't live in the same place so the scientific experiments are probably worthless anyway. The point is that if something works well for a million other people, it "probably" will work well for you too. And not only that, but how many people seriously look at the weather, the atmospheric conditions, and all the other nonsense i have no clue about and then say well... based on these conditions for this given day, plus the lay of the terrain, and the strength of the yen, i think i'll use this antenna today, but i'll switch to this other one tomorrow.

As far as criticizing a company. What do we do everyday? We get on this forum and ask which antenna is best? or how does this antenna perform? Every post on here is either directly or indirectly saying that antenna A is good and Antenna B isn't so good, Antenna C just plain sucks. Just because a person doesn't have a website showing people what their own personal experience was with a given product doesn't mean we all don't promote and discourage people from buying things all the time.

I'll also add that in the link i posted, he mentions the Diamond and RS 800mhz as being top performers.... how many people have recommended those antennasin the last 6 months. Hundreds.... so his tests aren't scientific.. big deal, a whole lot of people are coincidentally having good results with the antennas he recommends.