To imagine gain think of it like a ballon sitting on a table. It’s pretty much round. Now push it down against the table with your hand and you see that it spreads out to the sides. That’s pretty much what gain does. Sometime that’s helpful, like when talking simplex across a flat desert. Sometimes it’s not helpful, like when trying to get into a repeater that is significantly higher than you are. I’ve found that something in the middle is usually the most practical.
