HoHoHo
When I played with stacked dipoles, and if I remember correctly, the length of the segments contributed to the gain of the system. As the gain grew, the antenna became more 'focused' and narrowed the ...ahem... beam which raised the sensitivity in terms of distant location. I used this antenna on my ceiling for TV and had problems with one of them stations that was further that 80 miles. I could make the antenna segments longer which would pickup that far station, but then the other closer ones would become noisy. I did this in 1/4 wave, then 1/2 wave and finally full wave. Full wave would get the far one but not the local, 1/2 would get all with noise, and 1/4 wave would get the local ones but not the far one. I couldn't get those dang TV stations to move their antennas in a line as they liked them spread out at about a 30 degree angle from where I was.
Does this apply to the element that sticks up in a cantenna? If we make a full wave element, does the gain grow along with the element length as we do the 1/4 multiples? We would also have to move the element the 1/4 multipler from the back of that antenna also wouldn't we? If this is correct, this would help in dem long distance squirts wouldn't it? I know that it would be harder to aim, but manageable.
Sorry, just Sat ramblings...
Oh, and just cause you all are so informative, I thought that I would share this with ya:
The .gov showed up with the police at my doorstep claiming that I was stealing cable. Apparently the cable installer guy that forced his way into my house a few weeks before and into the living room; had a look at the 23ga wire on the ceiling and thought that I was stealing cable and reported it. Could have been because I realized that he did this and got by my kid, and when I finaly got my wits, grabbed him and threw him through the door. Bounced then skidded on the sidewalk! Definently a guy with a ID ten T problem. Laughed about that one for a long time.... hmmm still do.
todh