The engineer's maxim of "TANSTAAFL" applies.
Effective antenna design relies on mathematical relationships.
Well-designed antennas keep both of these principles in mind.
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How exact do the dimensions of the dipoles have to be for them to work really well? I see the UHF ones like the bay type have one length of dipole. If you are off by a couple inches making them would that throw off the quality of reception a large or little amount?
like what would you guess the amount you could be off in length? 5% 10% or 25%?
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Impossible to quantify in general terms. A poorly executed antenna will work adequately, assuming it works at all, until the conditions (signal power, frequency, angle, etc) change enough to throw reception off the digital cliff into the digital abyss. The well-designed and executed antenna will continue to perform well as the conditions change or degrade as long as the user understands its characteristics and properly exploits them.