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Receive Antennas – Gain and Efficiency
One popular misconception is that antenna gain pays equal dividends in receiving and transmitting.
While transmit to receive antenna gain reciprocity applies to changes in absolute signal levels, it
does not apply to signal-to-noise. Once external noise levels are slightly above receiver noise floor,
signal-to-noise ratio is almost entirely a function of antenna pattern. System loss or system gain is
no longer a factor, and excessive gain can actually hurt reception of weak signals.
Efficiency is not a major consideration in dedicated receiving systems. This allows application of
techniques that increase directivity in receive-only systems, techniques generally unworkable or
unacceptable in transmitting antennas. In a Multi-Multi contest station environment, passive receive
elements offer significantly greater dynamic range.
Site Selection
Site selection is important. Three major things upset the pattern and performance of an array. Phase
errors, element impedance errors, and improper spacing. This array’s phasing system uses a
combination of end-fire and broadside phasing. This array forms a clean stable pattern with high
directivity over wide bandwidth. Because of the stable, clean, narrow pattern in eight selectable
directions, this antenna is the ultimate in receiving.
Directing the antenna pattern away from noise sources or toward the desired signal path is the
primary benefit. Antenna gain is a secondary advantage. As frequency increases, the fixed array size
becomes electrically larger in terms of wavelength. The increased electrical spacing produces higher
sensitivity (average gain) even though front-to-rear ratio only changes slightly. On the low bands,
once the receiving system, including the antenna system and the receiver, are hearing the lowest
possible level of local and propagated ambient noise, antenna
directivity (F/R) is the only thing that affects the signal-to-noise ratio.
The default direction of the array with no voltage (BCD 000) places
elements 1 and 6 in front and elements 2 and 5 at the rear. Pairs of
lines through two opposite vertical element pairs (tangents) point
toward the receiving directions. Elements 1, 2 and 5, 6 are selected as
the default, for a forward direction of North-East, with elements
installed as shown for North America. A mirror image of this element
positioning would be a typical default direction of North-West for
European installations.
This array can use active or passive elements. Passive elements provide the greatest dynamic range
and immunity to overload. Active elements provide the widest system bandwidth, but at the expense
of dynamic range.
Receiving antennas work best when they have a clean pattern with narrowest possible lobe, and
minimal spurious lobes. This is because noise generally comes from many directions, while a signal
comes from one useful direction at a time. If a signal comes from multiple angles or directions we
still do not want those directions, because the phase relationship and levels of the multiple path
Summary of Contents for DXE-RCA8C-SYS-4P
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