A 6 dB gain is worth a four times increase in transmitter power. More importantly, the four times increase in received signal is very handy for pulling out marginal signals. Without feed line, it s mighty hard to get a signal from your radio to the antenna. You would like to position the antenna near a window if you re high above the surroundings, or at least higher than the surrounding obstructions to get the signal out. If you had a chance, hauling 50 or 100 feet of RG-8U would be an ideal medium loss HF, VHF and UHF feed line cable, but it s mighty bulky and heavy.
Little things make a big difference.
Using headphones and a boom mike will cut out the background noise in a busy, cluttered environment and will also keep your audio from blasting around an already noisy room. To speed operations, you may want to also include a foot switch to key your radio with your foot to leave your hands free for writing messages and adjust the radio. So, there you have it. A quick run through some simple things that make a big difference in responding to emergencies. Here are a few new sites.