panel vs yagi

This is sketchy info, but please give me your best guess.

Was using a 2dBi rubber duckey whip to pick up a signal about 20 degrees
off it's peak angle and getting a "fair to good" connection, good enuf for
my slow purposes (using a laptop and very good senoa pcmcia card). Signal
was improved about 5-10% with a home made, cut in half tin can placed
behind the whip a few inches to act as a reflector.

Moved to new apartment about 3 miles further away. Still getting the
signal at about the same angle, but too weak to be stable.

New choices for better antenna are a flat panel 14dBI antenna adjustable
indoors around a swivel pole or a 12dBI Yagi which, by virtue of it's
shape and size appears to be more easily adjustable. A cursory look at the
specs seems to indicate they both have about a 40 degree signal pickup
horizontal field.

I know nothing about the signal transmitter or antenna, except that they
are broadcasting on channel 11, so little or no interference as rest of
scanned transmitter points are all on different channels. And it is not
encypted and my guess is that it is a school.

Which am I more likely to get a better signal with, the Yagi or the Panel?

Here is a weak diagram of my best guess of the location of the transmitter
and my antenna. Distance is about 3-4 miles. The transmitter is likely up
high since I am picking it up from so far away.


TX-
-
-
-
-
RX(receive)


Here are the antennas I am looking at to possibly boost my receive ability.

Yagi:
http://www.netgate.com/catalog/produ...products_id=73

Patch (panel?):
http://www.netgate.com/product_info....36f9e7c060d117

Nomen Nescio wrote:
> New choices for better antenna are a flat panel 14dBI antenna adjustable
> indoors around a swivel pole or a 12dBI Yagi which, by virtue of it's
> shape and size appears to be more easily adjustable. A cursory look at the
> specs seems to indicate they both have about a 40 degree signal pickup
> horizontal field.
> Which am I more likely to get a better signal with, the Yagi or the Panel?

Since they both have the same gain, neither one would have any advantage
over the other. And since they have the same gain, they would have the same
beamwidth.

While the Yagi does have a bit of back pattern gain, its not much. The most
significant issue would be wind loading. Oh...and ice buildup. The Yagi
will be detuned with ice, but the panel will just loose signal - waxing the
panel face will discourage ice buildup.