So I got a freebie a-99 already cut for 10m. OK, great. I go online and look for more information on it and it's just an end fed, half wave vertical with an impedance matcher, so to speak, attached to 16 ga wire in 3 sections.
Currently I switch back and forth between an inverted-V half wave dipole and a vertical half wave dipole.
Just for your edification on the construction method, I used 4 strands of insulated 12 ga wire, tightly twisted together to length for each leg of the inverted-V. For the vertical dipole I used insulated 8 ga wire and hung it in a tree with a rope also attached to the bottom leg and secured to the ground just so it doesn't blow around all over the place.
1) My question(s) is, should I expect a better gain figure with the a-99 over my dipole?
2) Should I attach a wire, cut to resonant (about 100.75") to the base of the a-99 and let it hang straight down? The a-99 will be hung from a tree in the spot that the vertical dipole occupies.
3) How is the manufacturer of the a-99 able to claim it is a half wave over a quarter wave radiator with a gain figure of 9.9 dbi while the dipole MIGHT be as high as 2.4 dbi?
Anyway, these are questions for greater minds than mine and any help would be greatly appreciated. Hey, did I mention it's free pour at bar?