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Old December 18th 05, 04:54 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
K7ITM
 
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Default Passive reradiating antenna

Looks to me like you are confusing "efficiency" with "directionality".
That is, a small loop, or a short dipole, will have a low radiation
resistance, and when it's small or short enough, the resistance in the
conductors of the antenna becomes appreciable compared with the
radiation resistance. That causes a loss of efficiency, because the
signal energy ends up heating the wire resistance instead of being
useful to the receiver. But a helix and a half-wave dipole will both
be very nearly 100% efficient. The difference is that the helix is
quite directional.

One way to get better reception would be to have a set of highly
directional antennas (high gain antennas) that track a set of the
visible satellites. Do you really want to do that? Or do you perhaps
instead want an antenna that has a pattern that "sees" better in a cone
with maybe a 25-40 degree elevation above the horizon, because the
satellites directly overhead are not generally the problem? As is
commonly the case, you should probably consider the whole system, not
just one part of it. What, exactly, is the goal?

Cheers,
Tom