Antenna recomendation

If mounted indoors, a well oriented wire dipole ( the "T" antenna that comes with tuners and receivers ) is hard to beat. If mounted outdoors, there are a multitude of antennas that will easily outperform the ST-2 or Fanfare equivalent for measurably less money. Sean
>

Squiddy: i am using an omnidirectional antenna of my own design mounted appr 40' in the air. I did side by side comparisons with a half dozen commercially available omni's and it stomped them all into the ground by a very noticeable margin. If one of the others had worked better, i would be running it now.

Phil & Bill : ) I remember looking at the FM Reflect and it simply looked like a larger wire dipole aka "T" antenna ? Am i missing something here ? Sean
>

Sam, i agree and disagree. I was privileged to meet a very unique individual a few years ago that designs antennas. When i firt looked at his designs, i flat out laughed and told him that i thought that they were all nothing more than "contraptions". 7 years later, i've still yet to find an antenna that works better than one of his designs does for HF use.

To further reinforce my findings, i know that this gentleman just "won" an antenna shoot-out that the Government conducted on one of their test ranges. Out of 60 entrants, his designs came in the top three positions. The officials performing the tests asked if they could keep two of the designs as they stated that, according to theory, it was impossible for these antennas to work as well as they did. Obviously, they must have read the same ARRL books that i did : ) Needless to say, they wanted to tear them apart piece by piece to disect them and see why / how they were able to do what they did.

It just goes to show that nobody knows it all when it comes to antennas. Me, you, Bill Orr, Joseph Carr and Gordon West included : ) Sean
>